


Body Parts

by Machillusion



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Changing Ideas, Chaos Theory (KHR fanfiction only), Dramatic Irony, Especially in the second part, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Romance, Fluff, Good ol' Pseudo-Science, Guilt, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Minor Character Death, Misunderstandings, Out of Character, Past Relationship(s), Positive and Negative Charges, Screwing with Multiverse Theory, Self-Hatred, Slow Burn, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-24
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2018-01-20 14:39:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 9
Words: 42,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1514153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Machillusion/pseuds/Machillusion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tsuna made a mistake. Two mistakes, actually. One cost his life and the other his conscious. Haunted with the blunders of his past, he decided to keep trying again until he made it right. All while trying to fool Reborn, because if there was one person who he didn't want to know what happened, it would be him.</p><p>Too bad both attempts are failing miserably.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Inevitable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introduction of Reborn & Tsuna. Since they're the only ones who seriously matter besides maybe three others, sadly.  
> Also, for those of you from FF.net. This is the same chapter I wrote two years ago (three now lol). I didn't alter anything, but in the foreseeable future I will start to edit my stories. My grammar was (and plausibly still is) horrid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please enjoy :D

A bird.

A dead bird.

There, at his window, was a dead robin. Its fragile wings hugged the bottom portion of the casement, and its body hovered over the flat side of his desk. It was a rather beautiful bird; its color was a mixture of a rusty maroon sword and a brilliant sanguine. The bird's eyes were wide open, revealing its blue pearls, and the legs were open and stiff, almost as if it were ready to attack. But the bird was dead, and there was nothing the poor creature could do to protect itself. Nothing.

The person tsked angrily as he picked up the cold carcass and quickly stormed into the bathroom next to his room. The smell of the rotting body was getting to him as always, but if he had thrown it out of his window, the maggots and flies were guaranteed to be there the next morning to terrorize him in his sleep, buzzing noisily by his ears. And if he had went outside to bury it, someone would notice, and damn it, he didn't want that.

He pushed open the door, hearing it creak with a soft whining sound—maybe the sound one would hear from an old wooden floor—and dropped the dead animal into the toilet, hearing the disconcerting splashing sound of the water and seeing the blood transform the once clear water into a soft vermilion color. He could only watch in horrid fascination as the bird was pushed down into the small hole, its head decapitating from its body before falling into the harsh tunnel of water and god knows what else.

The person was about to wash his hands; quite frankly, the smell of blood bothered him—and so did the feel—and he wanted to wash it off as soon as possible. He wanted to feel _clean_ again. The blood would prevent that from happening. But first, he needed to check something.

He placed the palm of his hand to his mouth and swiped his tongue along the length of it. For a second, the person didn't taste anything particular; that is, until it got to the back of his throat. All of a sudden, a burst of flavors and emotions came into his head, even as much as when he swallowed the surprisingly warm liquid. But the most profound of what he tasted...he didn't like. Bitterness...as hate, a sweet yet tangy taste...as lust and gluttony, blandness...a sourness scorned only by the fortunate, and an unknown taste that he could not place. Richness, maybe? No, it seemed too...sour for that.

The person sighed tiredly, and in slight annoyance, washed his hands and walked slowly into his room. A rancorous expression was etched on his face, almost as if he had drank a lemon before returning to his room.

This time was no good, either. He would hit a dead end, just like how he did before.

* * *

 

The rays of the morning sunlight basked proudly against the window of a fourteen-year-old boy, one who squirmed restlessly under his bed. The heat was getting to him badly, but he didn't want to move. He wanted to sleep in his bed all day and watch as that horrible sun came up, and went right back down again. But...he knew that if he didn't move, his mother would move him.

"I hate school," he whined as he rolled out of bed and reached for the underarm deodorant that was sitting patiently across his table. He didn't want to take a shower; he took one at four in the morning. Taking one again would be too much. He could always just take it when he came home. The boy deprived himself of clothing to splatter a bit of the dusty substance on his body, and then brushed his coffee colored hair into a neat bunch on his head. No matter how hard he tried to keep his hair down and in order, it went right back up again.

He slipped on his uniform before grabbing his bag full of school materials and slipping out of his room. He felt his heart race as he proceeded to join his mother in the kitchen area. Slowly, he put a trembling hand to his chest, and clamped at his skin. Hard.

"Mom, what's today's date," the boy asked as he sat down at the table, eagerly waiting his breakfast meal. No matter how full he was, no matter how much he may have eaten before, he would always save some room for his mother's cooking. Her cooking was the best, after all.

"Oh, you're up early," Nana stated as she happily set down to give him his breakfast. "It is September 10. You remember what today is, right?"

"Yeah..." Tsuna's face depicted a blank expression for a short moment. Yes, today was the day he dreaded. Today was the day that he hated with all of his heart, though he would be damned to show it. He didn't want to make his mom think _worse_ of him; god help him if he ever did that. She already worried too much for him, especially with the grades he had. He had everything from as low as a one to a thirty-two out of one-hundred on his test scores. The only thing that he did well in was lunch, and that was because he had the average amount of attendance. It wasn't because he was smart or anything. It was because he had good participation, that's all.

Nana coaxed him with: "Things will get better as time goes on, so don't look like that."

 _That_ being the somewhat sour expression on the boy's face as he suddenly got up from the table. He was upset, alright, but it had nothing to do with battling his first day of school. Of course, walking into school when it was almost half-way into the year was never pleasant, but there were things much more upsetting than that. Much more.

"I...am going to check the mail," Tsuna mumbled as he walked out of the kitchen. He quickly replaced his inside shoes with outdoor ones, and made his way to the mailbox. It was an old, beat-up thing, and the blue paint was starting to peel off of it, but it was still usable, and the handle was still in very good condition. From all the mailboxes that he has seen, he knew _this one_ was the best. It didn't suddenly break on him, nor did it lock in place due to all the rust surrounding it. It was good and hardy, that mailbox.

Lifting up the cover, Tsuna came face-to-face with a white, manila letter. It was sealed with a red insignia, and the boy had a sinking feeling that he knew exactly who sent it.

"..." He could feel the desperation and panic rising up in his throat like a volcano waiting to happen, and without so much as another thought did he rip the letter into a hundred shreds. He was half tempted to burn it, but he knew that the smoke would attract others and the burning paper would get people curious. Oh god, the last thing he needed was someone being _curious_.

He hurried back inside and closed the door, locking it tightly before slowly returning to the kitchen, where his eager mother was waiting. He could feel his heart beating in his chest at a rapid speed, and he idly wondered if it would beat so fast that it would come out of his chest. He could taste the _bdump bdump_ on his mouth, and hear the muffling cries that his heart made. He hoped that infant would look into the mailbox and somehow figure that they were the wrong party, because if not, they were screwed.

Correction: _he_ was screwed.

"Did anything come in the mail?"

"No," the brunette replied shakily as he sat down to eat the scrumptious food his mother so graciously made him. The delicate foods touched the back of his throat, and forcing down a bitter laugh, he tried to smile genuinely, ignoring the burning sensation in the back of his throat.

"This is good, mom."

"Is it? I wanted to try something new this time. I'm glad you like it."

"Yeah, but anything you make is good." They continued to eat, Nana occasionally asking her son questions and Tsuna dutifully answering them, when a knock was heard at the door. If his heart was beating fast before, now it pumped incredibly fast as the boy shot up out of his seat and gave his mother an attempt at a bright smile. It worked. But then again, it always did.

"I'll go see who it is. Don't worry about it." Nana only smiled at him, and quickly waved him off so he could answer it and come back. But Tsuna didn't want to go, and he didn't want to come back. He just...wanted to stay between everything. But he couldn't. So with a nervous gulp, the boy opened the door and immediately looked down.

What greeted him was a baby with a small fedora on his head, a chameleon hugging his shoulder, and a suit as if some rich mother wanted to dress up her baby in the most expensive clothes to attend a ceremony. It was ridiculous, indeed, but Tsuna knew it was far form that when it came to him.

"Chaossu," he said, his voice slightly higher than what Tsuna was expecting. "I'm Reborn, your home tutor."

 _This_ was the moment that he was waiting for.

"I'm sorry, but I think you might have the wrong household," Tsuna boldly announced, his voice not wavering. He could _do_ this. He could make it. He could do this, and Reborn wouldn't come back. Not now, not ever.

"This is the Sawada family, correct?"

"No..."

But he didn't have a chance to say anything else; his mother wondered out there with her shoes, staring at Tsuna.

"Tsu-kun? What's taking you so long?" At once, he immediately cursed himself at his stupidity. Of course his mother would wonder why he was taking so long. This was a thirty-second affair, not a five minute one.

"Someone just got the wrong house," he quickly answered her as he cracked the door. "I'll be there in a second." He was about to turn back, but his mother started to walk towards him, a concerned look on her well-shaped face.

"Oh, but you're bad at directions. Let me at it."

"But-"

"Don't worry about it. Now don't you have to go to school?" School could wait. Breakfast could wait. Homework could wait. Hell, anything could wait. But if he didn't send Reborn away now, everything would be up to naught. No no no, not again. He had to do this. This would be the last time.

"School can wait, mom. I want to help him." But she refused adamantly, and he knew that if he didn't do something fast, something fast...

"Do you know where the Sawada household is? I thought it was here, because a letter was addressed to here, but-"

"There was no letter here," Nana cut in, giving the baby a quizzical look. "But this _is_ the Sawada household. What is it that you might need?"

"I'm the home tutor for Sawada Tsunayoshi," he declared, flicking his fedora upwards as he sometimes did. "Do you know who he might be or where he might be?" A flicker of recognition came into her eyes.

"Oh, you're talking about Tsu-kun, then!"

"I don't need a home tutor," the boy quickly bit out as he ran into the kitchen, grabbed his bag, and proceeded to run down the sidewalk. "Mom, can't you send him away?"

"You'll have better grades," Nana retorted as he ran down the street. "Don't be late!"

He could only wish that he were late. Because there was nothing more heart wrenching than knowing that things were going to fall into place again, and that things were going to go sour.

"You're a student of Namimori Middle, yes?" Reborn had caught up to him, and sat on his shoulder while Tsuna ran. "I can-"

"For your sake and mine," Tsuna suddenly stopped running and stared at the baby sitting on his shoulder, who stared back at him.

"Please leave me alone. I don't want to have anything to do with you." He placed the baby down again, and started to run. When he didn't hear tapping behind him, he assumed Reborn gave up and went ahead to badger him when got there. If there was anything he knew about the baby, he knew he was stubborn as hell. And there was no way that Reborn would give something up without a fight.

Maybe that's why Tsuna didn't freak out when he felt something crawling up his body.

"Didn't I tell you to leave me alone?"

"I don't give up easily," the Italian boy countered as he sat on Tsuna's shoulder. On one hand, Tsuna appreciated it. He could use the company, especially since he knew that when he got to school, he would be bullied. Again. He always was.

But on the other, he was panicked. He knew that he was screwed. The baby already found him—thanks to his mom—and he was on Reborn's radar as a 'student'. But honestly, _it_ would get worse if he didn't do something. Fast.

But he was all out of options and had no way to get rid of Reborn. After all, he did them all already.


	2. Perserverence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where Tsuna really can't handle being bullied anymore and snaps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own...

* * *

 

Tsuna figured Reborn was around there somewhere. Maybe he was in a cupboard or something. Or maybe he was hiding in the ceiling and poked a hole through one of the tiles. That _was_ one of his favorite places to hide, after all.

After Reborn had a feel for what Tsuna’s life was like, he would then make his little hide-outs around campus in a somewhat futile effort to watch his student. It was so pathetic how Reborn made hide-outs in the same exact places every single time. But once in a while, Reborn would do something different, which would give Tsuna a little bit of hope for the future.

Sadly, this was not one of those times.

Tsuna was sitting in class—though to be honest, he really couldn’t pay attention no matter _how_ hard he tried; it was just too boring and dull—listening to one of many of his useless teachers blabbing about something with imaginary numbers, a concept that he both thoroughly understood and yet couldn’t comprehend at all. He memorized it all: the formulas, the usage, even what imaginary numbers were, but he couldn’t understand the concept of imaginary numbers. If he was given a fresh, new question on it, he was sure that he would fail. But then again, he was coming to school in the middle of a semester. It was no wonder he couldn’t understand it.

The teacher called on him to answer a question, and Tsuna, knowing full well that the teacher was aiming to make him into a laughing stock—because really, part of the reason why he was always bullied in the first place was because the teachers were too incompetent to stop it or even had the heart to _want_ to stop it—wrote the wrong answer on the board rather hesitantly. The teacher, a portly and balding man by the name of Nakamura, cackled obnoxiously and pointed at his answer.

“How could you get that wrong, Sawada?! We’ve done these types of problems _at least_ eight times in the last week!”

Tsuna allowed a flush of shame to flood his face, and he quickly sat down, but not without taking a glance at Kyoko to see how her reaction was. Everyone else was laughing as the teacher erased his answer off the board, and, with a little more energy then what was really needed, thoroughly explained the question—but not without throwing a few jabs at how stupid Tsuna was—but Kyoko seemed rather sullen that he was being made fun of so publicly like that, and he felt his heart go out for her for what seemed like the thousandth time. Kyoko, while sometimes oblivious to things, had such a sweet soul, and no matter how much time passed for him, he couldn’t get rid of his little infatuation for her. It wasn’t quite love, but it was adoration. Maybe even a little bit of admiration. And he knew that he could never get with her, that the two of them were so completely different, but sometimes he couldn’t help but dream about a future with the two of them every so often.

The class ended without another guffawing outburst, and Tsuna slowly made his way, lunchbox in tow, to the rooftop. He sat down and sighed; eating alone was never fun. But it’s not as if he had any friends, and to be honest, he didn’t want to make friends this time. Reborn was more than enough. And if Reborn had his druthers, he would _force_ Tsuna to make friends.

Geez, this is part of the reason why he didn’t want Reborn around. He could be so persistent. And yeah, it was his mission to make Tsuna into a mafia boss, but no matter how many times he told Reborn he didn’t want to do it, Reborn would always point that stupid green chameleon in his face and gruffly inform him (how funny was that? A _baby_ gruffly informing him, a _baby_ …) that he never really had a say in the matter, that it was his duty to do it no matter what. And sometimes, Tsuna wanted to slug Reborn in the face despite him being a baby, because no matter how much his pride was stomped on, he didn’t want to be ordered around by a _baby_ of all things, but most times, between his “fear” and that look that Reborn had in his eyes, those eyes that gently reminded Tsuna of _him_ , he could never quite say “no.” Even if he wanted to. And he really did.

As Tsuna was about to take a bite of his food, he felt something slap roughly across his face, enough that normally, he would be balling out in pain, but now, simply tilted his cheek to the side. But still, he was _supposed_ to be crying out in pain. He turned to Reborn, who was standing there with a rather irritated expression on his face.

“Reborn! What was that for?!”

“What was that pathetic excuse of an answer back in the classroom?” Ah. That was why he was mad. Well, that makes sense, but…Reborn should have known this.

“I’m not good in math, it can’t be helped.”

“Not that, No-Good Tsuna. You didn’t even _try_ to answer the question. And don’t tell me that you did, because I’ll hit you even harder than I did just now.”

“I did try! And how did you find out about my nickname anyways?” Reborn cocked his head toward him, a little more irritated than before. He started to say something but Tsuna cut him off, not really caring one way or another. He just wanted to eat in peace, and although he knew this would happen, it was annoying nonetheless.

“At any rate, you have no right accusing me of something I didn’t do. I tried, I’m just not good at—” Reborn transformed Leon into a hammer and thrust it in Tsuna’s face.

“Didn’t I tell you not to lie to me? I can tell the difference of someone who isn’t trying and someone who is. I’m seriously going to hurt you, No-Good Tsuna.”

“Why are you even bothering me about this anyways? In fact, why are you even here? I thought I told you to leave me alone earlier.”

“And I thought I told you that I don’t give up easily. Are you going to continue to fight me on this, No-Good Tsuna?” He raised his hammer in warning, and Tsuna backed off, almost tipping over the lunch box his mother made for him. He glanced over his food and then he raised his hands in surrender.

“Okay, okay! I get it! I’m sorry, okay?” Reborn also glanced at the food and then he plopped next to him.

“As long as you understand. If you don’t have motivation for _this_ , then you won’t have motivation for your family either.” Tsuna scrunched his eyes a little and then cocked his head.

“My mom has enough motivation for the both of us. Why would I need to have motivation for her?” The baby looked as if he wanted to insult Tsuna, but held back.

“Not _that_ family. Your mafia family.” Tsuna knew this. He was kind of hoping that Reborn wouldn’t say that. But of course he did. Why wouldn’t he? That’s the sole reason why he was here in the first place: to make Tsuna into a mafia boss.

“I don’t want to be a part of the mafia! I don’t know how many times I have to—”

“You’re going to be the leader, no matter what. Stop arguing with me about it; it’s going to happen whether you like it or not.” Reborn glanced at his food again, and then at the sun. “Aren’t you going to eat? Your break is almost over, you know.” Tsuna had almost forgotten about his food.

“Oh, right.” He picked up his chopsticks and ate his rice, and with a very bitter laugh, he continued to chew.

“Why do you look as if something died in your mouth? It doesn’t taste good?” Tsuna had to swallow a bit too hard, but he made the food reach down his throat and into his stomach. He told Reborn that it tasted good, but seeing the very sour look on Tsuna’s face, took some for himself. The food was delicious; Reborn couldn’t see a problem with it.

“It’s not the food,” Tsuna breathed. He took one more bite and then offered it to Reborn, who thought about eating it, but declined.

“It’s your food that your mother made for you. You should eat it.” Tsuna nodded and then continued to eat. He wanted to spit it out so badly, but he couldn’t. At least, not in front of Reborn. Chances are, the food that Nana made scored some sort of point with Reborn. Spitting it out would make Reborn angry and…augh, he didn’t want to think about how many ways Reborn would try to make him bleed for spitting out Nana’s food. He managed to eat it all in time before his break ended, and then he quickly packed his lunchbox into his bag and ran for it. He didn’t feel that Reborn followed him, which was good. He probably wouldn’t like what he was about to do.

Stumbling into a bathroom stall, he planted two hands firmly against the toilet seat and vomited. He kept regurgitating over and over again, so much that his throat grew hoarse. He kept coughing and coughing and soon he just sat on the cold floor, a little bit of bile falling from his mouth. He knew this would happen, but it still shocked him anyways.

He couldn’t digest his food. He had no digestive system to work with.

* * *

 

He stumbled out of the classroom an hour and a half later. The lecture on chemical bonds was so boring that he started to sleep a little. He knew Reborn was watching him from some hole of his, but after vomiting, all of his strength sapped away and he was left a rather confused and dizzy mess. Whoever said that eating too much was bad was a complete liar. Eating a lot keeps your strength up and keeps you awake. At least, that’s what Tsuna thought.

As he watched his classmates peel out in pairs and groups, Tsuna dusted a little bit of imaginary lint off of his pants and left, his schoolbag in hand. It didn’t matter how many times he saw it; seeing people be so friendly with everyone but himself stung a little. He should be used to this by now—it’s been happening since he was younger—but for some reason, he still felt a pang of jealousy whenever he saw people being so chummy with each other. That nagging thought that he tried to push from the back of his head, “ _Why couldn’t_ I _be normal enough to have a friend or two?”_ kept stirring around, aimlessly poking at his conscious until he snapped out of it and started to head home.

That is, until he saw who was waiting for him outside.

“Hey, it’s No-Good Tsuna! Finally sick of skipping school?” He didn’t bother explain to them that he _didn’t_ skip school, that he knew school started in April and yet it was his first day in September, a full five months past when he should have come, that it was due to extenuating circumstances why things were like this (would they even know what that meant? Probably not), but he didn’t say anything and instead wobbled away. He wasn’t in the mood to be bullied today. If he ignored them, they should leave him alone after a while…

“Hey! Are you listening to me, you piece of shit?!”

“He doesn’t understand, Hiro-san. He’s too stupid to understand.”

_Just ignore them…_

“Then we ought to make him understand. Stupid kids need to be taught a lesson physically.”

_Just ignore them…_

“Alright! That’s the spirit!” One of them grabbed onto Tsuna’s shoulder and tugged, hard enough for Tsuna to drop his bag and thump into the window. The students that were in the halls were just watching, almost as if it was some television show, but no one reached out to help him. Like always.

_Just ignore…_

“You dare show your pathetic ass here? You’re stinking up the air with just your presence. Hurry and get the fuck out of here, you useless piece of trash!” The student named Hiro, a tall, long-faced man with a slight Kansai accent—he _did_ just transfer into their school a few years ago—kicked Tsuna in the shin. It wasn’t enough to make Tsuna cry out in pain—there was only one man who could do that, and he wasn’t around right now—but it hurt. A lot. He felt the area start to swell and he wondered how long he could ignore them.

_Just…_

“Hurry up and go back to where you came from!” With that, he punched Tsuna so hard that the window shattered. Screams echoed the hallways, and everyone froze, almost like pausing a video game. Still, no one reached out to help him. The two students smirked in satisfaction, but Tsuna couldn’t take it anymore. He had never done it before this, but he was so tired of it. So tired of the bullying. So tired of being alone. So tired of having to deal with something so small, so insignificant. So tired of having to entertain the same scenes over and over again, when there was _so much more_ that he had to do. So tired of having to deal with these two imps that thought they were better than him, when in actuality it was the other way around. If he wanted to, he could have killed them in a second. But he always chose not to because he didn’t need another death on his conscious. He just wanted to live. Was that so wrong?

_I can’t take this anymore._

He waited, waited until they came close, and then he walked around them. Blood was dripping from his head and his left eye was glued shut from said blood, but he was determined. He would make an example out of these two, and then no one else would bother him. He could live in peace when everyone was scared of him, and even if Reborn wanted to make him get guardians for the Vongola family, it wouldn’t work because everyone would be too scared for their own lives to be friends with him. It was perfect.

“What, you gonna run away, you chicken? You’re such a wuss, running away is perfect for someone like you!” The other student, a bitter, sharp-tongued student named Kai, grabbed Tsuna by the arm and thrusted him at Hiro so Hiro could kick him, but Tsuna used that momentum to push Hiro out of the window. His Will put that much more force on him, and Hiro’s body slipped through the cracked pieces in the window, slicing his skin in the process. He fell from three stories up and hit the ground hard with a sickening crack. His head was lolled to the side, and blood was all over the front of his uniform. His right arm was bent too much to the left, and something—Tsuna didn’t really want to know what—wedged itself into his stomach. A piercing scream filled the campus, and everyone ran to the window to see if he was okay, but Tsuna only stumbled away, knowing that at the very least, he would live for a few more minutes. It was up to the people around him to save Hiro, but he didn’t kill Hiro.

That, more than anything, made Tsuna feel a bit better about everything. He got his revenge without killing someone.

Later, he found out that Reborn had saved him from being charged with a criminal offense. The students that had watched the whole fight accused Tsuna of not only instigating it, but also pushing Hiro out of the window. Well, he _had_ pushed Hiro out of the window, but he didn’t instigate it, and technically it wasn’t his fault. He only pushed Hiro out of the window because Kai pushed him at Hiro, who was going to kick him. But Reborn, who had also been there the whole time, recorded it and showed it to the principal and the police. Knowing that Reborn was a good source (who knows what Reborn dressed up as this time), they not only believed him, but they also punished the other two with suspension and possible juvenile detention. He owed Reborn a lot. But honestly, juvenile detention didn’t sound so bad. The only problem was that Reborn would probably pay to get him out, smack the crap out of him, and then train him to become a proper mafia boss even harder. He would have rather this than _that_.

When Reborn finally arrived at Tsuna’s house and Tsuna met him upstairs (Nana didn’t really ask questions since she didn’t notice his bruise, and Tsuna didn’t point it out), Tsuna hesitantly thanked him.

“Thanks, Reborn.” Reborn only spared him a side glance before he continued to look at some of Tsuna’s test scores.

“For what? I didn’t do anything worth thanking for.” He shuffled a little bit on the bed.

“You helped me out. I heard they would have charged me with a criminal offense.” The baby scoffed.

“It’s not like you did anything wrong. Besides, I’m your tutor. It’s my job to help you.” Tsuna felt a little uplifted by that. Because of the actions that Tsuna did, Reborn not only thought a little better of him—actually, did he? Tsuna couldn’t tell—but things were different now. Maybe he could…

“If you’re thinking that just because I helped you that I won’t train you to become a mafia boss, you’re dead wrong, Tsuna.”

Oh. Well there goes that plan. At the very least, he changed things up a bit more. Tsuna was sure that with a little bit of time, he could convince Reborn _not_ to train him to become a mafia boss. These last two days was proof of that, for sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lost my original account, Syn'phasia, and now am under the alias "Machillusion", similar to this account. But if you want to see what this story originally looked like, go to Syn'phasia's account on FF.net
> 
> I also decided to leave the smut for Darkest Desires, a story that I didn't quite know where I was going with it. I feel that it definitely suits the theme more. So while there is no smut in this story, the rating isn't going to change. There will still be gore and possibly disturbing situations that will take the place of it ^^'
> 
> And I think it's funny in a weird way: Tsuna wants to have friends so he won't be alone, but he doesn't want friends at the same time. (No, that was not a mistake, I really intended to write that XD) I guess I can explain that here since I won't in the story: Tsuna wants to be with people, but he doesn't want to make friends because he knows that Reborn will add them into the family. So permanently alienating himself was the best way to not make friends (as well as getting his revenge), which is partially why he decided to indirectly attack random "once-in-a-lifetime" character Hiro.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this story.


	3. Relief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where there is a somewhat interesting flashback and Tsuna feels oddly at ease after battling with himself and Reborn. No action here, sorry. Gotta wait two more chapters, so feel free to skip this chapter and wait until then.

_He was fingering idly with the new toy Dino gave him._

_Dino often travelled around the world, being that he was a mafia boss and all, and he often came across the strangest things. At one time, he had come across a singing fountain—who the hell even invented that thing?—and at another he came across an automatically growing cape. When it was cold, it would grow, and when it was hot, it shred its skin. He was pretty sure that the inventor had a cat or a dog’s fur in mind when making it._

_This little thing wasn’t as eccentric, but it sure as hell was unique._

_It was an electric gun, a computerized gun, really. It had a tiny chip for a motherboard and it had a solar-powered energy source. But the best of all was that it automatically absorbed and fired off cloud-type bullets. It was a bit different than the Second’s weapon; his was a regular gun that was accustomed to firing off sky bullets. But this thing, it did it all on its own. All he had to do was point at a target and pour flames into it and it would do all the work itself. It was pretty neat, actually, and it was probably one of the most useful things that Dino brought for him that he didn’t immediately throw in the garbage._

_He leaned on his desk further, quite restless from not being able to sleep, when he saw a feather float and land on his desk. Immediately, he stiffened._

_“What is it that you could_ possibly _want from me this time of the night?” A small chuckle tumbled through the air and all of a sudden, he saw a white-haired man with wings watching him with a small hint of a smile across his lips._

_“That’s so cruel of you to say. What, you don’t like my company?” The person leaned back into his desk, irritated._

_“Not at twelve at night, I don’t.”_

_“Even if I have information for you?”_

_“…” He waited for Byakuran to continue. But when he said nothing and simply cocked his head in a somewhat mocking gesture, he sighed and motioned to the wooden chair in front of him. With another laugh, Byakuran sat down, and after eyeing the gun that the person was just playing with, he picked it up and began fingering it himself. The machine turned on, and while it didn’t register Byakuran, it registered the flames within him._

_“This is a pretty interesting thing. Cavallone cater it to you?” The person glanced at him, and then resumed back to the sluggish position over the desk he had before Byakuran flew in on him._

_“I wouldn’t call it catering. It was brand new and Bronco gave it to me first. So I registered my flames with it. You’re lucky it’s not shutting down on you.”_

_“Probably because I have your flames mixed in with mine.” At that, the person huffed and straightened himself._

_“So, what’s the information you have?” Byakuran snickered at the poor diversion and placed the gun on the person’s desk._

_“I found a good one. It’s a few breaths from here to the west, but I’d say it’s pretty stable. You might have a chance in that one.”_

_“That’s what you always say. And then things don’t work out and we’re back to square one.” If Byakuran was put-off, he didn’t show it. He simply smiled the way he always did when something amused him and placed his chin on his hand._

_“It’s not exactly easy to do this, you know. And the requirements you give me aren’t that easy to fulfill. Not to mention that I’m supposed to be killing you right now. So do you_ really _have a right to complain?” At that, the boy couldn’t really say anything._

 _Begrudgingly, the person admitted Byakuran was right. If Byakuran was cruel, he could have used this as a moment of weakness and killed him ten, no, one hundred times over. Byakuran being this considerate really wasn’t characteristic of him, even if he did it just to see how things would turn out. In that sense, he supposed he should be thanking Byakuran for cooperating with him, especially since there weren’t that many people who_ could _even help him. So instead, he thanked him and started asking about that place._

_“So, how stable is it compared to here…?”_

* * *

 

Reborn was on his shoulder again.

No matter how many times he told Reborn that no, he didn’t want to become a mafia boss and he wouldn’t listen to him no matter what, Reborn stubbornly stuck around, saying that it wasn’t his choice to make. Instinctually, he knew that _nothing_ was his choice to make. Not meeting Reborn, not having these flames and certainly not these circumstances. It was always, _always_ in the hands of Fate. But that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t try to fight back.

 “First off,” Tsuna started as they walked past Namimori Park, “if it’s dependent on who is in our family, I’m sure I am not the only Sawada there is. How about you find someone else to tutor instead?”

“They are already being tutored. And so are you.”

“And why do you think I want to be a criminal? Who just goes up to someone and says, ‘Hi, it’s nice to meet you, you’re going to become a mafia boss today?’” At that, Reborn did a little huff as he repositioned his body on Tsuna’s shoulder. His hair tickled Tsuna’s cheek a bit, and Tsuna swatted it away lightly.

“Becoming a mafia boss doesn’t necessarily mean you become a criminal.” Tsuna stopped walking and did a double take. Being a mafia boss wasn’t being a criminal? That was probably the funniest joke that Tsuna heard today. Well, that wasn’t saying much. It was the first joke he’s heard today after all. He tried to calm himself, but he failed miserably as he ended up yelling at Reborn. Just the crap that Reborn was pulling out his ass to make Tsuna agree to become a mafia boss—which would be never, sadly, even if he did help him two days ago—was so ridiculous it was almost sad, if only Tsuna could laugh at his antics.

“You’re killing people! Of course you’d become a—”

“And so do police officers. So does the military. The only differences between criminals and ‘heros’ are who you’re killing for and the reason you’re killing the person. When a police officer kills a person, does it make the action of killing right? Most people would say ‘yes’ because they’re doing it to help society. Then what about you? You could become a mafia boss to help society. In fact, that’s what I’m _training you for_. Now stop whining and keep walking.”

Tsuna didn’t really have a really have a good retort for that. What could he say to that? No, Vongola isn’t good? He knows their blood-soaked past, so that would never happen? That Tsuna has seen the future of Vongola, and that it would still be tragic, just like their past? That would raise more questions and chances are, Reborn would know for sure that something was wrong. And despite their close relationship in the future, he knew that at this moment, Reborn would not hesitate to torture him for answers, quite literally.

Instead, he tried a different approach. “Have you ever tutored anyone else besides me?”

 Sadly, Reborn already knew where he was going with this. “Why do you ask?”

“Just curious.”

“You’ll meet him soon, I’m sure. And no, he can’t take your job. He has his own family to tend to.” It would have been futile to keep fighting him on it, so he simply let the conversation fade into silence. The two of them walked on, past the local run-down bank that Tsuna used to play by when he was younger, past the market center that his mother shopped at almost religiously, and past the arcade center that he never got a chance to look inside of because he had no one to go in with, and it would look incredibly stupid if he went into an arcade center all by himself. As he got closer to his school, Reborn noticed that some of the students from Tsuna’s class glance in his direction and hurry on when they saw that Tsuna was near them, but Tsuna didn’t really pay attention to them. He was more worried about how he would protect himself this time without hurting someone. No matter what, he didn’t want a repeat of two days ago.

When the two of them were in front of the school, Reborn hopped off his shoulder and immediately started walking to the back of the school. Tsuna had half of a mind to call him back for some sort of comfort or something, but he figured that Reborn was going to observe his actions now to see how he operated under stress. To be honest, the brunette wanted to smack the baby for that—seriously, couldn’t he been at least a _little_ sympathetic?—but he knew that wasn’t the way Reborn worked. He used every situation to his advantage, and this was no exception. Yeah, he may have helped Tsuna, but he knew he only did it so he could tutor him, not because he cared.

Tsuna walked through the hallways and he noticed something was terribly wrong. No, it wasn’t the smell of bleach and pine, although that in itself was pretty bad. The smell of pine was heavenly, a soft scent that reminded him of the blocks and blocks of wood that his father sometimes brought home as a “souvenir”. The bleach, on the other hand, was pungent and strong; it overpowered most of the other scents in the school, which is most likely why the windows were left open in the middle of fall. But that wasn’t what was throwing Tsuna so off balanced. What was throwing Tsuna for a loop was the students.

All of the students were paving a way for him as he walked by.

* * *

 

Tsuna had never experienced such tranquility before.

Even when things ended and he had that moment of peace, it was nothing compared to this. There was always a nagging feeling in his mind, that feeling that said he had to go back, that he had to fix his mistakes or else everyone else would suffer the consequences, the consequences that _he_ caused, that _he_ dragged them into. And then there would be another part of his mind that would crave to just _live_ , to simply forget about his friends and to find a way to happiness on his own. With a somewhat reluctant heart, he would right everything again, and then the cycle would repeat. All through that process, he would feel a niggling of despair twisting itself in his heart.

But now, now he was at peace. All of the students that usually picked on him instead avoided him out of fear of what would happen to them, and for the first time since he went to school, he actually felt sure of himself. He wondered if this is what dictators felt when he realized that his subject feared him. This calmness, this superiority, it felt so _wonderful_. After so, so long of people treating him like he was lower than the gum that was smeared under their foot, now they feared him and he wanted more of it.

_No. This isn’t right._

He couldn’t think like this; that was how he became tainted last time.

Breathing in and out slowly, Tsuna focused his mind on the classroom. On his classmates. What were they talking about?

“Did you hear what Cursed-Tsuna did?” Oh. Was that his new name? He was kind of flattered, especially since it was true.

“Yeah, I saw it a few days ago. He cursed Hiro-kun and he almost died.”

“What? Are you serious? We’d better stay away from him; I don’t want to get cursed either…”

That suited him just fine. He could actually have a quiet life like he’s been craving all this time. And what’s better, it would be much harder for Reborn to find him guardians if the whole school was afraid of him. Because really, most of his guardians came from his school: Hibari, his cloud guardian, Gokudera, his storm guardian, Ryohei, his sun guardian, and Yamamoto, his rain guardian, they all came from his school. That would be four less guardians that he could deal with if this all worked out.

After a while, the class started, and Tsuna leaned a little on his hand, not trying at all to pay attention. And why should he? There was no need for it when Tsuna wasn’t good at studies to begin with. What’s better, when the teacher called on him— _like always_ —and Tsuna got the answer wrong— _like always_ —and the teacher laughed— _like always_ —no one laughed with him. They were all so deathly afraid of something that wouldn’t even happen in the first place.

Tsuna just ignored them all and sat back down. He finally had the life of peace that he wanted. Once the teacher realized that no one else was laughing with him he would eventually stop.

He did stop, after a while. He continued with the lesson, and eventually Tsuna dozed off to sleep. It made no sense to listen to the lecture; it wasn’t as if it would help him anyhow. He heard the bells alarm several times, but in his fatigue, he only lifted his head a little before thumping his cheek back on his desk. He slept through the entire day without anyone waking him up until Reborn wacked him in the head after school ended.

“Get up. Don’t you have any shame, No-Good Tsuna?” Tsuna’s head throbbed, but he sleepily sat up from his chair. Slowly, after cracking his back rather noisily, he began to pack his books into his school bag, trying hard to avoid the glare that Reborn was stabbing his direction.

“That hurt, Reborn…and please don’t call me that. Everyone calls me Cursed-Tsuna now.” The baby scoffed.

“As far as I’m concerned, you’re No-Good until you prove to me otherwise.” Tsuna finished packing up the rest of his books and glanced at outside. It was already sunset, and there was a soft sound of the remaining of cicadas that hadn’t died from the season change. He cracked his back again as he turned to Reborn, double checking that he had everything simultaneously.

“That’ll be close to never. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I’m not exactly the brightest bulb out there. Trying to force me to become a good student is almost as bad as trying to force a rabbit not to chew on something.” Reborn sneered a bit at Tsuna’s negativity. He forgot that Reborn couldn’t deal with wimps. It was probably the reason he tortured Tsuna so bloody much originally.

“You don’t know until you try. And don’t tell me that you’ve been trying. You haven’t been.” Tsuna sighed as he left the classroom. No one was in the hallways; it was deserted and a lot of the over-head lights were turned off. He wondered how long Reborn let him sleep for. From the looks of it, it had to have been at least two hours or so. Then…was he waiting for him to wake up all of that time?

Tsuna arrived at his locker and stumbling around a bit. He retrieved his dirty and tattered shoes and slipped them on. After a moment of thought, he asked, “What’s the sense of trying? I won’t get it anyways.”

“Say that again, and I might not hold back next time.”

The two of them were almost home after a long walk of silence when Reborn suddenly spoke up again.

“You need to make friends, you know. It’s not healthy to be by yourself all this time.”

“I’ve been fine all this time,” Tsuna retorted. He knew why Reborn was doing this, and he wouldn’t play along with him. If his classmates wanted to be afraid of him, let them be afraid. He wasn’t going to attempt to be cordial with them so they could turn into his guardians. He would be digging himself into a hole that he wouldn’t be able to get out of, and all he would have to blame for it would be himself.

Too bad Reborn wasn’t going to listen to him. As always.

“Oh, did I make it sound like a suggestion? That was an order. You’re going to make friends, whether you like it or not.” He knew it. And since when did Reborn order him to do something? Even if they were going to be with each other for a while, Reborn didn’t really have a right to order him to do anything…but just because he didn’t have a right didn’t mean he wasn’t going to order him. And Tsuna would most likely listen regardless even if he didn’t want to. As it was, he tried to get rid of him in the beginning, but because of his tenacity, he more or less was a part of the family now. In two days. Unfortunately.

“How am I going to do that? Everyone is afraid of me in school.” When Reborn smirked, he had a feeling he knew exactly what he was going to say.

“Oh, that’s simple. A transfer student is going to be coming in a week or so. You can start with him.” Great. Tsuna knew that Reborn was going to use Gokudera as a catalyst to get more guardians. So now the question was…

…how does he stop Gokudera from befriending him from now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t know why, but I have the shitty habit of finishing chapters super late at night. Anyways. I thought this chapter sucked, except for the beginning. And really, it’s my fault. I didn’t plan at all in the beginning. The first three chapters are kind of duds; I used short descriptions where I am supposed to fill in the blanks that I don’t mention in the basic plot of the chapter, while chapter five and on I become more descriptive with what I want. So if you think this chapter is cringe-worthy, it should get better in a bit.  
> Next chapter is going to be from Yamamoto’s point of view. I found it interesting that canon-wise, Yamamoto was the guardian Reborn trusted the most, besides Tsuna. I decided to capitalize that, so a few chapters are going to be from his point of view. Tsuna’s point of view starts back up in chapter five, and that’s where the first part of this story, “That which is and was”, or plainly, “the introduction”, ends. So things should pick up from there, thank god.  
> Even though this chapter might have been crappy, I still do hope you enjoyed it.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gokudera/Yamamoto POV.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be prepared for a long-ass chapter. No seriously. I was barely at the beginning of the chapter and it was already 3k. *sigh* Anyways! Thank you all for your support! I think that my chapters are going to start increasing in length…OMG. Or rather. I rushed it at the end. This could have been much, MUCH longer if I didn't.
> 
> Disclaimer: If I owned this story, Tsuna and Reborn would be shagging each other and there wouldn't be that stupid Arcobalerno curse to get in the way. Baby, my arse. =.=

Yamamoto had heard of the rumors about Cursed-Tsuna.

To be honest, it didn't really phase him that much. If that was because he normally didn't take people's reputations into consideration when he talked to them or if it was because he just didn't care, not about Sawada or other people, perhaps just baseball and his father and life in general, he wasn't sure. But still. He didn't care about the murmurs in the halls, or even about the horrified glances they threw towards Yamamoto when he often made eye-contact with Cursed-Tsuna. (That was his nickname, right? He wasn't sure if it was that or No-Good Tsuna. Did it even matter?)

So when he bumped into Sawada in the hallway, which was right at the entrance of their classroom, approximately a week after the incident happened, he stepped back and apologized, not even registering the terrified glares his classmates practically clubbed him in the face with. But did it matter if he did? It's not like anything would have changed. He probably still would have talked to Sawada.

"Hey, I'm sorry Cursed-Tsuna," he apologized without a shred of remorse. He didn't really notice how everyone backed away from the two of them slowly, but he did notice that the brunette's face froze in place. How strange. "I keep bumping into you often, and I really don't mean to. Let's shake on it?"

Slowly, almost if shackles were binding his classmate's movements (was talking to him so bad? He really didn't think he was such a frightening person; in fact, he was pretty sure that _Cursed-Tsuna_ was supposed to be the petrifying one; he is the one who curse that second-year, after all), he shook his head and gaze right into Yamamoto's eyes, having to crane his neck a little to be eye-to-eye with him. It was then that he realized how much _smaller_ Sawada was than him. He always assumed that the two of them were rather similar in height, but being so close to him made him realize how petite and short he was. His wild, toffee-tinted hair is what really gave the illusion that he was taller than he actually was.

And for some reason, it struck him that Tsuna was much, _much_ more vulnerable than he made himself out to be. He wondered why people couldn't see that Tsuna was, perhaps, a good person at heart.

"If you touch me," Tsuna said, his eyes still gazing on Yamamoto's smiling face, his upturned lips, "then you'll be cursed. You'd best just leave me alone."

"Oh, I'm sure it'll be fine. I've always had some sort of luck on my side. Now let's shake on it!" Without blinking twice, Yamamoto forcibly snatched Tsuna's hand from his side, where it was hanging limply like a dead fish, and shook with hand with vigor. Everyone else gasped, backing up further, but Tsuna just stood there, almost shell-shocked, looking back from his hand to Yamamoto's face, almost as if he couldn't believe what was happening at that moment. After a while, Yamamoto released his hand and waved a little, much to the increasing surprise of Tsuna, and he walked into the classroom. As soon as he did, about half of his classmates swarmed around him like moths to a flame.

"Yamamoto, what were you thinking?!"

"Don't you know that Cursed-Tsuna can kill you? Look at what he did to Hiro-sempai!"

"If you get cursed, you can't play anymore, bud. Don't you know you're the best player on our team?" The baseball nut simply laughed, placating everyone with one of his winner grins as he leaned forward in his chair. Other students were listening as well, with their ear not so subtly cocked in his direction as he reassured them that, no, nothing will happen to him, that his lucky baseball (he was sure he heard a snort from someone about that) would keep him safe. And he was right. Nothing did happen to him.

Not during their first class.

Not during lunch.

Not when he left.

Nothing.

But someone transferred a little while after. And that is when something _did_ happen.

He grew attached and became friends with the foreign transfer student, who, unsurprisingly, was connected to Cursed-Tsuna. It seemed like almost everything was connected to him, nowadays. How amusing was that.

* * *

Gokudera really didn't think that this _Sawada Tsunayoshi_ kid was worth the trouble of moving from Italy to Japan.

He had heard the rumors about Vongola. They were one of the most dangerous mafia family in the underground, after all. They were ruthless. They were efficient at what they did, and they ruled their family with an iron—but benevolent—fist. Nono, the current leader of Vongola, was a man with the humor of a dried up mummy and the smile of a loving grandfather. But he was growing old, and everyone knew it. That was why he began to tutor everyone who was suitable to take over the Vongola name. To his knowledge, there were five people who qualified; Sawada Tsunayoshi was one of them.

But from what he heard about this kid in the reports, he wasn't _really_ worth the trip, nor the recommendation to become the leader of Vongola. His grades were abysmal, he was a coward—god, Gokudera _really_ couldn't deal with cowards—and he had no talent when it came to fighting or leadership. If that was the case, what good was he? Why did that useless CEDEF leader nominate him? The world may never know.

Regardless, he was told to test Sawada's strength as a conceivable Vongola boss. If he won against this kid, then he was to report back to his leader that Sawada was not a strong enough candidate. But if he lost…

No. That wouldn't happen. At least. Not anytime soon. This Sawada person sounded way too wimpy for his taste. And he sounded like a weakling. This would be over in days, perhaps hours.

As he wheeled over his luggage towards an empty, beige, concrete-topped, prepaid house smack dab in the center of the ongoing buildings—it looked so clean, so neat and well-groomed, and yet the deficit of people inside made the whole house appear to be desolate, almost doleful—he cocked his head a bit and observed the people of Namimori. He was a few paces away from the center of town, in the midst of a sundry of little shops—if those mini-street markets can be called that—where mothers argued over the price of groceries to the sellers, and children cooed at the sweets that were advertised in a small window barely wider than the mirror that he had at home, his _true_ home.

He huffed and all but dragged all of his luggage up the few dilapidated and uneven yet smooth concrete steps and shuffled in his pocket for the key. No one really paid him any mind as he slipped inside.

Everything smelled so new; it was similar to that fresh, crisp car smell that he used to love to inhale when he was a kid and his father brought a new car. Not that he would ever admit that to his father, mind you. He could never quite forgive his father for what he did to his mother, after all.

He lugged his bags to the closest room he could find, which happened to be a few steps away from the bathroom on the main floor. Perfect. Now he didn't have to run all over the house trying to find a bathroom when there was one right there. He opened the smooth, ivory-painted, wooden door and allowed his senses to take over.

It was plain, but neat, just like the rest of the house. When he briskly walked to the window that was directly in front of him to let some fresh air in—ignoring the groans of protest from the polished wooden floor underneath his feet—he opened it to see a beautiful sunset and a view of the shrine that was halfway across town. Of course, there was that noisy shopping area, but all in all, it was a nice sight for a ground-floor view.

After he packed away his clothes and began to settle in, he decided to get something to eat. He was much too lazy to cook himself, thank you very much. He could cook later, when everything was settled…hell. If he stayed here long enough, maybe he could cook himself something tomorrow night, assuming that his observation of the Coward took that long. It probably wouldn't. He would write Sawada Tsunayoshi as a coward and then he would go on his merry way, all while getting a nice pay for it. It was no skin off his back.

He locked the door after checking the house a bit more and walked out casually. A few people glanced at him, but he knew it was most likely because of his hair. It was _always_ the hair. Always. He guessed it was because they had never seen a white-haired kid before, but there were people who dyed their hair green and blue, so he wasn't sure what the problem was.

 _Probably because everyone in Namimori is either a basket case or has a stick shoved up so far up their ass that it reaches their prostate_ , Gokudera thought sardonically as he wandered into a sushi restaurant. He could already feel the anticipation building that he got to try sushi again.

It was something that Shamal, his tutor, got him into when he was in Italy.

" _Try it_ ," he had said with a small smile on his face. At that time, Gokudera was younger and he adored—maybe even worshipped—Shamal so he tried it. He didn't regret it at all at the time. That experience, probably a good five years ago, was probably one of the better memories of his childhood, not to mention with Shamal himself.

Ever since then, whenever he came to Japan, he always went to a sushi restaurant. Yeah, he visited the okonomiyaki restaurants too—those were pretty good, he had to admit—but for the sheer memories alone, he always went to a sushi restaurant. Ramen restaurants were nice, too, but the excess broth in the soups tended to give him a stomachache.

Yamasushi, this restaurant was called. It was steaming with life, both literally and figuratively. People were everywhere, and for a second, Gokudera was slightly miffed that he would either have to stand and wait or take the food home. As clean as his house was, it was a bit too quiet for his taste, which is part of the reason he wanted to eat out tonight anyhow.

It didn't look like that would be a problem, though. A slightly aging, lanky, brunette man called out to him while finely chopping some sort of fish. It looked like fatty tuna, but Gokudera wasn't certain about it until he got a closer look.

"Welcome! Would you like your sushi to stay or to go?"

"I'll have it to stay," Gokudera replied as his eyes flickered around the room for a place to sit. "If that's possible," he added, not finding a place to sit _at all_.

"Of course that's possible!" He stopped chopping for a minute. "Takeshi! Help this young man find a seat, will you?"

In seconds, a younger ebony-haired boy ran up to him, all smiles and teeth. In the instance that they met, Gokudera could tell that this kid—he probably was his age, but he didn't give a damn; he just acted way too young for him to possibly get along with—was going to be really, really annoying. He didn't know why, maybe it was that smile, showing all of those pearly whites, or maybe it was the way his eyes crinkled a little, but he was annoying. And Gokudera didn't want to be bothered with him.

But at the same time, he _really_ wanted sushi.

"Hi! Come right this way, I'll help you find a table. Actually, you can sit right here," and the kid named Takeshi maneuvered smoothly around all of the masses of bodies—how he did that, Gokudera didn't know, he could only stumble around like an idiot—and found a seat at the very front of the restaurant, right in front of the man who initially greeted him. As Gokudera sat down, he watched how the man minced each piece quickly and proficiently. Ah, it was fatty tuna he was cutting. It smelled heavenly; it was so fresh and appeared so supple. Gokudera leaned over the small glass partition to scrutinize it a bit closer.

"Ah, what would you like today, um…?"

"Gokudera," the half-Italian muttered as he stared at how quickly the man was chopping. He had to be a swordsman in his past. The way he was cutting so finely, there was no way that he could be just a chef. There was just no way—

"Ah then. Gokudera, what would you have today? Today's a Saturday, so you can have an extra plate of sushi for free, so as long as you order from this menu." Takashi held up a blue menu, and Gokudera absent-mindedly grabbed it. After the man stopped cutting, he finally glanced at his menu and was disappointed to find that his favorite, fatty tuna, was not on there. But salmon was on there, along with eel and yellowtail. Those were not as good as his fatty tuna, but they were definitely good in their own right.

"I'll take a platter of these six," Gokudera said finally, and Takeshi leaned over to take a look at what Gokudera meant before telling the man at the front and then wandering to the back. After a while, he received his food from the man in front of him, and Gokudera thanked him for the food before eating.

"You look new. Did you recently move here?" Between bites, Gokudera answered the chef with a curt nod.

"Your parents have business here?" Not that it was any of this guy's business, but he didn't have any parents, unless you counted Shamal, who was more of a pain in his side than a guardian. For one thing, he completely abandoned Gokudera, so if he ever had the audacity to call himself Gokudera's guardian—which, he knew would _never_ happen; the daft letch was probably chasing after girls to do anything about Gokudera—he would slug him. Hard.

"No, not quite. My parents are unavailable, so I travelled here on my own."

"Ah, I see. It must have been hard for you, then." Maybe it was something in his voice, but Gokudera glanced up briefly, and there was something in the man's eyes, something that made Gokudera believe that he _knew_ about him, knew about his _real_ identity, and out of habit, he stiffened, ready to pay and leave or fight if he had to. Or maybe this guy would rat him out to the police, saying that there was a Mafioso in his sushi store. It was plausible.

"Relax son. I'm not going to hurt you," the man continued, laughing as if he didn't just figure out who Gokudera was, as if he didn't just observe Gokudera a bit too closely, a bit too hard. "You're a customer here, which is all that matters. And you like our sushi too. My son, Takeshi, had picked out these fish with pride. To see you eating them so avariciously comforts me a lot. Oh, and feel free to take some home! It'll be tough to live on your own, so don't worry about it. Just see me after the store closes." So that smiling freak was his son, huh. That explained a lot, funny enough.

After the store closed, the man gave him two platters of sushi to take home with him—along with a promise that he could come whenever he liked to get more for a discount. Gokudera accepted it gratefully, but he felt something was off.

"Why are you so nice to me?"

"Why shouldn't I be," he countered with a grin. "You're new, you're on your own…and chances are, you're the same age as my son. If you're thinking this is pity, it's not. It's just a little 'umph' to help you get settled in. You don't mind, do you?"

"…" At that, Gokudera didn't have anything to say. He was pretty sure that no one was ever this kind to him before, except maybe the house-maids that he used to live with. But even then, they were never truly nice, just cordial enough, and then they whispered about his parents behind his back. He heard it all. He wasn't interested.

But this. This was so different. This was a man, perhaps an ex-Mafioso, which treated him kinder than anyone else he knew. And it rendered him speechless. He could only nod and wander back to his empty house.

And then that Takeshi kid came bounding alongside him.

"Dad said you're the same age as me, right? That means you'll be transferring into our school?" Hearing this guy's cheerfulness made him want to grit his teeth and slug him in the face, but he only nodded curtly before continuing home.

"Then. I'll see you Monday, one way or another. It'd be great if we were in the same class, wouldn't it?" He was tempted. So, so tempted. But his father was kind to him and he was a swordsman. He couldn't lash out at this guy.

"No, it wouldn't be," Gokudera grounded out instead. He turned to Takeshi and glared at him. "And I would appreciate that if you see me, you don't talk to me. I don't like guys like you." He was sure that now the guy would be insulted.

Nope.

He laughed it off as he started to retreat back home.

"I like you, though. You're interesting. I'll see you Monday, Gokudera!" He began to jog home, but then he stopped and thought better of it.

"My name is Yamamoto Takeshi, for the record. So if we see each other again, we should definitely call out to each other!"

"Hah, like that'll happen," Gokudera muttered as the guy grinned again and started to jog away again.

Except. They really did end in the same class. Life sucked, didn't it.

* * *

Yamamoto was about to doze off in class when they introduced a new student, and he had a distinct feeling he knew _exactly_ who it was.

He was right.

A very irritated-looking foreign student was glaring at the classroom, staring Yamamoto straight in the face, almost daring him to say something. And he was going to say something, too. Just not now. Not when he was obviously so out of his element. Not when he started to stare at Cursed-Tsuna for what seemed like (should he even be calling Sawada "Cursed-Tsuna" anymore? It's not as if he got cursed. Well. His dad told him that he would be fine, but still. It's not even like he sensed some sort of malicious intent from his classmate. He was usually good about that, but there was nothing there. At least, not of that sort. He was just…lonely. And perhaps a bit desperate) centuries.

When Gokudera passed him without so much as a hello, and instead all but stormed over to Sawada's desk and condescendingly loomed over him, he knew that Sawada and Gokudera knew each other somehow.

And when Gokudera scoffed every time Tsuna got an answer wrong on the board before following his lead and getting _every single question_ right—it was so criminal to be so intelligent, really—he wondered if maybe Gokudera was bullying the already ostracized student.

Nope, change that to a definite. He was _definitely_ picking on Tsuna. For some reason, it made him a little irritated at Gokudera. He was sure that Gokudera didn't know about Sawada, but at the same time, he was smart; he should have noticed that something was wrong, that Sawada was already reclusive as it was. For a fleeting moment, he thought it would be great if the three of them became friends. At least, he wanted to try.

When class ended, the petite brunette quickly ran out the room, and while Yamamoto wanted to talk with him, he wanted to become Gokudera's friend first. Perhaps if he became Gokudera's friend then he could convince him to become Sawada's friend.

"Hey, Gokudera." The half-Japanese student only scoffed at his attempt to gain a conversation and leaned back, putting his feet on the empty desk in front of him.

"What do you want?" After a second, the baseball-nut sat down in the chair adjacent to Gokudera, who was frowning at him quite hard. Man, if looks could kill…

"Can I eat with you?"

"…is that really what you wanted to ask me? Are you really that stupid?" Ah, another insult. But as he gazed into Gokudera's turquoise eyes, he knew that he didn't hate him that much. Well, at least he thought so. So he just laughed it off and nodded.

"You're already here; what's the point of asking me, Yamamoto?" Ignoring the slither of happiness he felt at his name being uttered through Gokudera's lips, he nodded and took out his food. It was a platter of Yamamoto's favorite sushi, along with a side of rice and shitake mushrooms.

"Where did you come from, Gokudera?" Said boy paused for a second.

"…you're already interrogating me?"

"Well. Not quite. I wouldn't call it 'interrogating'; I just want to know more about you mostly. Saturday wasn't enough," he replied with a grin.

"I came from Italy. And before you ask, my father was the foreign one. Any other questions?" Yamamoto made a hum of recognition before he attacked the matter at hand: his attitude towards Tsuna.

"So…you don't like Sawada?" At that, Gokudera stiffened, staring at Yamamoto with an unreadable look.

"What if I don't?"

"Is there a reason why you don't?"

"Is there a reason why you do?" His defensive attitude made Yamamoto laugh. Gokudera was like a cat; whenever he was uncomfortable, he hissed and puffed out its fur to make himself appear dangerous. And for some reason, that made Yamamoto like Gokudera that much more.

"Not really. I don't really know him that well, to be honest. But…it would be nice if we became friends with him. It's not like he exactly has anyone on his side."

Gokudera thought to say something, but instead held it back and made an irritated click through his teeth. "And what business is that of mine?"

"None, really. It would just be nice if you could." After Gokudera finished eating his food, he licked his fingers and glared hard at Yamamoto, which, in turn, made Yamamoto smile even wider. Perhaps it was because all Yamamoto could ever see with Gokudera was a defensive cat, his glares didn't really affect him much.

"I have no obligation to do as you ask but…" He got up and started to head out of the classroom. Where he was going, Yamamoto didn't really know.

"…but I'll think about it."

And he really did think about it.

After class and baseball practice, Yamamoto found Gokudera and Sawada together at the back of school. Yamamoto was going to step in, but then he noticed that Gokudera had bombs in his hands. That alarmed the baseball-nut, but he simply watched to see what would happen. After all, while Tsuna did look afraid…

…he also looked sure of himself. He could tell. It wasn't in his posture, but rather his aura. He was calm, confident, and maybe even a little proud. Well. Not that Yamamoto could see his presence, but he could feel it. And even though the petite brunette was frantic when a baby with a fedora—wait, what? That baby had a gun? Shouldn't someone take it from him?—shot Tsuna with it straight in the head, and Tsuna's clothes practically tore themselves from his body, Tsuna was _still_ calm. At that moment, Gokudera began to light the bombs with reassuring speed, throwing them in the air, and Tsuna defused them, all in record time.

Yamamoto could feel his heart racing as he watched them; he wanted to do something like that too, but he wasn't sure _why_.

It all ended in minutes, and Yamamoto saw that one of the bombs that Gokudera had thrown was still there, about to blow, right in front of Gokudera's face. And without a second's thought, he dived to save him, but Tsuna was faster. He defused it so fast that before Yamamoto could take two steps closer, he had already picked them all up and handed it back to Gokudera, who was almost flabbergasted. He did a double take, and then his eyes changed. He was happy that he didn't get hurt, but he was also strangely…

…proud? Or maybe he was misreading that really exuberant expression on his face.

Perhaps Gokudera didn't hate Sawada as much as he thought, Yamamoto wondered as he jogged up to them. Well. Anyone wouldn't hate Tsuna, at this time. He _did_ just save Gokudera from getting hurt, after all.

"Hey Gokudera, Sawada," he greeted as the three of them turned towards him. At once, Gokudera's expression changed, and he appeared annoyed. Well then.

"What are you still doing here, Yamamoto?"

"I had baseball practice after school," he explained as he glanced at Tsuna, who was quickly retreating. "Wait, Sawada, where are you going?" Said man only sighed heavily as he turned towards them. He never thought that Tsuna could be irritated, but here he was, irritated at them, for reasons unbeknownst to him.

"I told both of you; I _really_ don't want to hang with either of you. Please just leave me alone. If you don't, I'll curse you." He walked away again, but the baby that shot him in the head before kicked him now, and Yamamoto wondered about the brilliant parent who taught this baby to be so violent.

"Ow! That hurt, Reborn."

"Then go make friends. You haven't made any yet, and you need to expand your family. Besides. You just saved Gokudera's life, so he's now indebted to you." Tsuna hissed as he rubbed his head.

"Oh _please_. I saved him from getting an afro and possibly a few scratches. It would take a _lot_ more than that to kill someone."

"Oh? And how would you know that?" For a second, such a split second that Yamamoto thought he missed it, Tsuna froze, and his face was closed off. His light, caramel eyes became darker, almost nefarious for a split second, and then everything returned back to normal. Gokudera didn't catch it, but the baby named Reborn did, and his eyes narrowed.

"It's kind of common sense," Sawada replied with a laugh. "No one is going to die with the bomb the size of a mini-energy drink. Besides. It was only one bomb, so…"

"That doesn't matter, No-Good Tsuna," the baby responded. "You saved him, so now you should do your part as a Mafia boss—"

"I told you, I won't be a Mafia boss! I don't know how much I have to—hiee! Okay, okay, stop threatening me with that gun, I get it!"

After the baby put the gun away—no wait, it was the chameleon besides him the whole time—he nodded at Yamamoto and Gokudera to follow the two of them.

"I see you two have acquainted with each other," Reborn commented, more to fill up the silence than to really hear an answer. Despite that, Yamamoto took the initiative to talk, more because he wanted Gokudera and Tsuna to become better friends with not only him, but with each other. The mafia stuff may have confused him a bit—considering that Reborn was a kid, a violent kid, but a kid nonetheless, he assumed it was a game, yet seeing the bombs that Gokudera threw at Sawada, he seriously wondered about it…no, it probably _was_ a game—but he still wanted the three of them to be friends. Gokudera interested him and Sawada interested him. Well. They interested him in different ways, but he still wanted to be with the both of them. Not to mention, they really didn't care that he was the clean-up hitter in baseball. They just cared about _him_ , which he liked. Well. In Gokudera's case, that "care" would take some work, but he knew that Tsuna definitely didn't care about things like that, except to maybe comment on how good a player he was.

"Yeah, Gokudera and I met a few days ago at Yamasushi…" He began with a bright grin. Despite talking with Reborn and Tsuna—plus Gokudera who added in his input—it still couldn't quite distract him from _that_.

From that expression on Tsuna's face from before. Those eyes. That face. That look.

And the guilt in his aura along with the small desire to kill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I rushed the end because, well. Unless you want a 10k chapter, which is where it was heading, this is much, much better. I'm not proud of it, but I think I'm getting into it more. I had a lot of fun with Gokudera's POV, if you couldn't tell. In the beginning, Yamamoto's POV was fun, too, but then I realized I was writing way too much lol.
> 
> Quick side note: Gokudera and Yamamoto were supposed to have become friends after the (canon) volleyball game. Instead, well…you see what happened. :/
> 
> Gokudera doesn't quite like Yamamoto because of how cheerful he is, but he feels indebted to his father, which is why he tolerates Yamamoto. It's also why he listened to his request to become friends with Tsuna. Which, he would have become friends with him anyhow, because that's how it's supposed to be canon-wise. But in this case, Gokudera is going to become friends with both Tsuna and Yamamoto (although with Yamamoto it might take slightly longer).
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Next Chapter: Memories within (End of Introduction)


	5. Memories Within

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsuna gets caught up in the past; the past begins to catch up to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so. Since FF.net is, in a matter of speaking, my fanfic Alma Mater, I am putting the beta'ed version there. Sadly, that also means that my audience there will be getting it much, much later than y'all. So good news for y'all.
> 
> I want to thank everyone once more for reading and reviewing and kudos'ing and the like, it means so much to me, especially since I know there are WAY better fanfics out there and way more fandoms that are popular. I only ask that you please continue to support me every so often ^^
> 
> I was a little stumped on what to write (which should be physically impossible since I have up to chapter 30 in my notes but well XD) but after re-reading my full fanfiction to see if it flowed and re-read my last chapter, I got inspiration. So yay~! Updates should be faster now!

_He was so close._

_The two of them were at their limit, Mukuro breathing heavily through his nostrils, and yet his flames kept growing by the second—but Tsuna didn’t want to give up. No, he_ couldn’t _give up. Not when there was so much at stake._

_“I never expected you to be the vicious type, Sawada Tsunayoshi,” the hetero-chromatic criminal breathed as he concentrated his energy yet again. It was dwindling, Tsuna knew, because while Tsuna had ample amounts of energy due to his curse, Mukuro had his limitations. He couldn’t pull from thin air like Tsuna could. And although it came at a hefty price, the price was right if it all worked out._

_Hell, did he even_ want _it to work out? Wouldn’t he regret this? He was almost certain that he would have. But he had nothing to lose. If this was all going to repeat again, he might as well throw some lives into it. It’s not like Mukuro will remember anyhow._

 _But wait. He wanted Mukuro to be a friend._ His _friend. So what was he doing, pushing Mukuro like this? Why was he still fighting him? His friends were unconscious; Mukuro didn’t have enough energy to transfer into them anymore, Ken and Chikusa were unconscious and thoroughly beat-up, and Mukuro himself was on his last leg. What made him continue to fight was sheer willpower. Dying willpower, if you please._

_So why was he attacking someone that couldn’t fight anymore? Where was the justice in that?_

_“No matter,” Mukuro continued, his voice slightly trembling, his grip on his Trident faltering a bit. “I will simply have to take over your body and end this charade. You may not be out of energy, but that will simply be perfect for what I need. When I get a hold of your body, I can finally do all that I please. And you will be powerless to stop me.”_

_The two of them circled around each other, watching the other’s movement closely, carefully, almost like two lions ready to pounce on each other, and Mukuro leapt first. He swung his Trident downward, in a somewhat half-hearted attempt to at least nick Tsuna on the shoulder, but Tsuna quickly shifted his body to the right, narrowly avoiding the steel ends. With one punch to the stomach, Mukuro all but flew to the ground, and he tried to get up, but couldn’t. He could only gasp in pain as he held his stomach, bits of blood spilling from his mouth like drool._

_The brunette approached him, looked down at him like Mukuro had did his friends, and felt an odd satisfaction at seeing Mukuro slowly gaze up into his eyes, as if_ Tsuna _was the stronger one—he_ was _, but Mukuro didn’t know that—as if he was the one in charge. Reborn hopped onto Tsuna’s shoulder when Mukuro slowly went unconscious._

_“Leave him alone; in a little bit there will be someone to take him away.” Oh, but he knew that, didn’t he? He knew all too well what was going to happen; the Vindice were going to take him away, and then he would get in contact with Chrome, who would act as he gateway to the outside world and…he would become his mist guardian before long. Oh, he knew. All too well. And he was going to stop it, here and now._

_He had never tried this before; his conscious always pricked him so hard when he thought about it, and then he always felt the wave of shame, the thoughts of guilt that he would even consider harming his friends to find a way out, his friends that cared about the useless, stupid, No-Good, Cursed-him, but this was Mukuro. Mukuro, who tried to kill him, Mukuro, who beat up his friends and classmates, Mukuro, who entrusted Chrome, a girl much like his sister, to him, Mukuro, who fought alongside him, Mukuro, the boy that protected him…_

_No. He had to stop thinking that way._

_He shook Reborn off of his shoulders and he lit his gloves. He wasn’t out of energy, and he could just feel the chaos right under his fingertips, ready to be let loose._

_“Tsuna,” Reborn started carefully, observing as his pupil’s eyes became darker and darker, “Tsuna, what are you doing?”_

_“Just got to make sure everything works out well,” he replied back rather nonchalantly, almost callously. He tested the heat of his gloves with Mukuro’s Trident. It melted away in seconds._

_Good._

_“Have to make sure_ what _works out well?” But Tsuna didn’t answer him. He just placed his hand over Mukuro’s heart, watching as the mist flames protected his skin at first, but slowly burned away due to the purity of Tsuna’s flames. Of Tsuna’s wretched flames. Of the flames that consumed him. That ate him alive._

 _And Mukuro’s screams were so loud that Ken and Chikusa, despite being unconscious and barely alive, woke up and started to drag their bodies towards Mukuro, if only to shield him from whatever pain was being inflicted on him, but it was useless as Tsuna created a barrier, blocking out not only Ken and Chikusa, but Reborn, who started at first using light bullets. But when he saw they were deflecting rather pitifully, began going all out. Those flames were ingested, and Tsuna sent a rather grateful look to Reborn, who didn’t realize what he just did. He could only watch in horror how his student burned Mukuro’s heart alive with a somewhat perverse, alleviated expression on his face, one that didn’t suit him_ at all _, and despite being the best hitman in the world_ and _being an Arcobalerno, he couldn’t surpass Tsuna’s flame._

_And then, when Tsuna had finally released Mukuro, who was limp, Tsuna’s eyes flickered down at his, and when he saw how lifeless those eyes looked, along with the betrayal, the anger, the sadness, the loneliness…_

* * *

 

He screamed.

But the screaming was all in his head; it was an echo of what he did, and Tsuna shakily stared at his hands, at the hands that killed Mukuro, at the hands that were baptized in blood, in bits and bits of…

He felt sick.

Tsuna immediately sat up, feeling wave after wave of nausea hit him like a flood, and he hastily pulled the covers off his body and all but stumbled into the hallway, his eyes desperately searching for the bathroom. After long last, he found it, and he gracelessly made his way inside, emptying the acid that was wedged into his throat in the toilet.

After a while, he felt someone’s eyes on him, but he was so exhausted, so frightened that he just sat there, feeling the cold penetrate though his pajama pants, slithering up his body, and he shivered violently. He knew that Reborn probably wanted to ask him something—he could always tell with him—but he held back, instead silently offering a glass of water and his toothbrush, which already had a smattering of minty fresh toothpaste—the flavor that Reborn found that Tsuna had an affinity for—on it.

“Thanks,” Tsuna mumbled as he slowly stood up, using the edge of the sink as support, and stared at himself in the mirror. What stared back at him were two hollow eyes, sunken in, with rings as black as the moss that grew on his strawberries surrounding his eyes, and chestnut hair that, most times, seemed rather vivacious, but now seemed withered and dry. The boy forced himself to look away from his face and onto other things—more _important_ things.

It was getting close, wasn’t it. It was so soon, though. Much too soon. It had only been two weeks since he came here; how could things have progressed so quickly?

He knew the answer to that, though. _It’s the curse. The bloody curse and that stupid, foolish_ —

“I ate something bad last night,” Tsuna lied as he wiped his mouth with his towel. Reborn knew that it was a lie; he always seemed to have noticed, even when the two of them met for the first time here, but even if he didn’t, the way that Tsuna’s eyes kept flickering down as if he committed some sort of heinous crime—in a sense, he _did,_ he killed Mukuro after all—gave it away. But Tsuna still kept up with the lie, and Reborn didn’t stop him. Maybe it was because they weren’t together long enough. Maybe it was because Reborn didn’t know how to react to this.

Or maybe it was because he wanted to give Tsuna a slither of grace.

“What did you eat to make you so sick like that?”

“Oh, well…I think I had some radishes in the fridge.”

“The daikon radishes?”

“Yeah….” And if Reborn knew that there were no daikon radishes, that there were no radishes in the fridge _at all_ , because they were always so expensive and Nana only liked to splurge when Iemitsu—that little bastard of a father—came home, he didn’t comment on it. Instead, he laid his tiny hand on Tsuna’s back and waited for his student to clean himself up and straighten himself out.

After a while, he did, and he spared a glance outside of the bathroom window. Too bright. It was much too bright for him to go anywhere right now. Maybe he could sleep in. Maybe Reborn might have mercy on him.

Almost as if Reborn knew what he was thinking, he retracted his hand and hopped off the bathroom sink. “No, you can’t stay out sick today, Tsuna. You have work to do, and you’re already getting abysmal grades without taking days off. How low do you think your GPA can go?”

“Not much lower,” Tsuna admitted a little bashfully, but didn’t stray his eyes from Reborn’s face. “But if I can prove to you that my grades can go up, will you let me stay home today to rest?”

The baby made a noncommittal hum in the back of his throat as he regarded his student considerately. The boy really _did_ look tired; his eyes had dark sags under them, almost as if he hadn’t slept, his face appeared haggard, his throat sounded sore and over-used, and his aura…his presence was so very small, unlike yesterday, when it rose when he was fighting Gokudera. From the looks of it, Tsuna could subconsciously tell that Gokudera wasn’t attacking him with all of his strength, and he was unusually calm. Maybe even a little regal. Now, that same aura was obfuscated by fatigue.

He sighed softly, looking away at his mess of a pupil. He knew he would regret it if Tsuna came to school; if he did, then Tsuna would not only doze off, but he would be sent home sick regardless of his feelings on the matter. After all, he could only manipulate a school but so much.

“Fine,” he finally conceded, exiting the bathroom. “But you are to get your own notes from your friends so you don’t fall behind. Understood?”

“Yeah, I will. Thanks, Reborn.” Reborn only nodded before he left, most likely to create a schedule for Tsuna so he could catch up on anything he couldn’t receive from his classmates.

But there wasn’t a need to do that. Tsuna had all of the notes drilled into his head for at least the next few months to possibly years.

After all, he already repeated this semester several hundred times over. And humans were creatures of habit. What kind of human would he be if he couldn’t even remember this much?

* * *

 

_They were facing each other, separated by only a padded metal chair, lopsided at best, broken at worse, with wobbly legs and rusted arms. He stared and stared at Reborn, and Reborn, in his original form, all but glared down at his student._

_“What did you do, Tsuna?” The brunette shifted for a moment, flickering his eyes away under the pressure of his eyes, so full of suspicion, so full of ire. He couldn’t stand to look at him._

_“What do you mean, Reborn?”_

_“You know exactly what I mean. Everyone is frozen besides us. And I mean_ everyone. _” He attempted to act surprised; maybe he could act as if he didn’t know as well, but judging by the frightfully knowing glint in Reborn’s eyes, he doubted very seriously that he would get very far._

_“They’re not—”_

_“No, stop. Just stop, Tsuna. As it is, I’m barely holding back. Now tell me what you did_.”

_And somehow, Tsuna knew that Reborn knew, he knew that Tsuna froze time, just so he wouldn’t have to deal with Mukuro, just so that he wouldn’t have the temptation to kill him like the last time—just for a timeline of freedom, that’s all he really wanted, or perhaps, just a second, no, a nanosecond to do as he pleased—and instead could live in a frozen time with Reborn, who was, for all these years, his only pillar of support._

_Or maybe that was just his forlorn hope. Chances are, that’s what it was. That’s_ all _it was._

_“I froze everything,” Tsuna replied, granting Reborn a superficial response as an answer to his question._

_“I can see that. But what did you do?”_

_“…”_

_“Tell me,” Reborn pressed again, patient this time. And it was now that Tsuna knew that Reborn knew, perhaps he always knew this timeline, and he just wanted Tsuna to tell him the truth. The truth about everything. About_ him _. About this curse._

_“I…froze time,” Tsuna mumbled. It was barely audible over that annoying buzzing sound, a noise similar to a choir of cicadas along with a soft, electric hum of wires that permeated the room and bounced back into both of their ears, but Reborn could hear it, loud and clear. His face didn’t expose an iota of surprise._

_“Why did you do it, Tsuna?”_

_“I…killed Mukuro before. In another time, similar to this one. Well, you never had your real form,” Tsuna confessed, and he could visibly see the way that Reborn froze at that last part, because Tsuna was never supposed to know about his curse; he never told him. But then again, in the time they were in, Reborn had Sky flames, bright and strong as ever._

_“I was so desperate at the time,” he continued, unable to stop himself from explaining. It started to tumble out, slow and steady, but he began to tell Reborn everything, all of his fears, all of his experiences, everything that happened._

_Along with the guilt that he gained from killing a man that once trusted him with his life._

* * *

 

Tsuna opened his eyes. What greeted him was an ivory wall that birthed a few cracks all along its body along with the faded light from the afternoon that weakly reflected from the window to his ceiling.

Right. This was his room. And this month was September, soon to be October. He had a nightmare, and he woke up in the middle of the night.

He sat up. Yawned a bit. Stretched out his legs.

And then he proceeded to rise from his bed, but not before bumping into a tray of porridge that patiently sat on the desk besides him, waiting to be eaten. He wanted to assume that his mom made something for him, but she was so oblivious that he suspected it was most likely Reborn. But who would have known that Reborn knew how to cook? Tsuna sure didn’t. In fact, Reborn had never cooked for him before, regardless of the circumstances. He wondered if that meant that something could be different this time, that maybe he could finally be free—

He squashed that hope as soon as it bloomed. Had a miracle like that had happened, he would have known the moment he arrived in this world. The sensations that he tasted…there was nothing out of the ordinary, just the same hackneyed flavors, overused and quite boring. And it wasn’t as if that bird looked out of the ordinary, either. It was the same, old, little bird that he had seen, that he had _always_ seen. And when his tiny little head decapitated into the toilet, the texture of the blood wasn’t different from usual—

This wasn’t what he was supposed to be thinking about right now. Right now, it was his job to recover, because Lord knows that Reborn wouldn’t grant him this chance again. As it was, he wasn’t sure why he gave him this chance in the first place, but he would take it with grace, thank you very much.

He repositioned himself on the bed and he leaned into the cooling porridge, smelling the scent of nutmeg and the cinnamon and all those delicious spices that he had once had when he went to Italy—he assumed that Reborn had brought these seasonings; his mother never put these types of seasonings into her food—and after picking up the ceramic spoon, took a tentative sip.

And then spat it all right out.

That’s right; he forgot that he couldn’t eat. He conjured a little bit of the Sun flames and all but sprinkled them over the porridge. It smelled even more divine than before, and he tried to eat it again.

God, he could do this all day.

And maybe technically he was being a little cannibalistic; after all, he was eating his own life force in order to eat this porridge, which would help him survive, but it felt so _good_ to feel his flames lick away at the wounds inside of his body and attempt—futilely—to repair what he lost. He sipped it again, feeling the warmth spill into his lungs and into his chest and into the deepest crevices of his soul, even, and after he was done, a little of the porridge stuck to the roof of his mouth like a coat of bittersweet honey, he laid back, satisfied, and felt the fatigue that had avoided him—to possibly escape the wrath of his adrenaline, maybe—run up to him and slap him, hard, in the head. He allowed his eyes to droop, and in moments, he was dozing off for the third time that day.

* * *

 

Of course, bliss never lasted long with Tsuna.

An hour or two—perhaps three if he was being really generous—after he went to sleep, he felt something shift above him. He was still out of it, so he didn’t know who it was, but it didn’t take a genius to narrow down the results. It was either his mom, Gokudera, who he was almost certain he didn’t give his address to, or Reborn.

“No-Good Tsuna, I’m giving you five seconds to get up before I hurt you.” Well, that answered his question. Of _course_ it was Reborn, why would his mom visit his sick son? Wait, did she even know he was sick? Did Reborn tell her? Maybe he did and she thought that he magically became better already. Hah. She definitely had her moments; that was definitely a possibility.

“…five.” Was Reborn counting all that time that he was thinking?

He opened his eyes right when he felt Leon’s hammer form descend, the force creating a mass of wind on his face and chest, and faster than he had moved in months, he dodged the attack, all but ripping the covers that were pooled around his thighs and crouched, watching as Reborn stopped Leon just seconds from crushing and effectively destroying his bed. Tsuna seethed a little; if Reborn ruined his bed beyond repair, there wouldn’t be a chance in hell that he would be able to get a new one. As it was, Nana didn’t want to spend money on food unless it was for Prince Charming, much less a new bed because his tyrant of a tutor— _some tutor he was_ —all but decimated his bed with a magical chameleon.

“What the heck, Reborn?! Have you forgot that I was sick earlier?” He glared at Reborn, not really caring for a moment that Reborn might just lash out at him again for being so rude, but then he noticed something was off with Reborn’s expression. He couldn’t figure out why that was until he repaired the last few seconds in his mind, and then he froze.

Shit. He just let his guard down just now, didn’t he? What he did wasn’t _normal_ , was it? He was supposed to be Sawada Tsunayoshi, the coward who wasn’t good at anything, who was average in sports, and who didn’t have any characteristics of the mafia about him, supernatural or otherwise. Well, part of that had to do with Nono sealing his powers when he was a child but still…

“It was a reflex,” Tsuna tried to explain, and then winced when he realized what he just admitted. “I mean, you surprised me you know. I didn’t want to get hit or anything. Couldn’t you just wake me up the normal way?”

Reborn kept on staring at him with this slightly bemused expression, almost as if Tsuna had become an enigma to him—and he might have just became one, damn it—but then the expression dropped and instead a smirk replaced it instead.

“You won’t get training from me coddling you,” he retorted a bit haughtily, and waited for Leon to transform back into a lizard.

“I may not get training, but I can learn to trust you,” Tsuna replied, rotating his shoulder slightly to ease the tension that formed from seconds ago, when he whiplashed his shoulder. Reborn contemplated it for a second, actually taking Tsuna’s statement into consideration, but then he waved it off.

“That’ll come with time,” he said, and Tsuna thought a tad bit sardonically that he didn’t _have_ time, at least, not the time that Reborn spoke of. But he still nodded, not really wanting to fight about it.

“Good. You’re going to be late for school, so hurry up.” Again, he nodded, and then did a double take.

“Wait, _what_?”

Reborn turned back to him, his expression now slightly impatient. “I let you sleep the entire night, Tsuna. You don’t look sick anymore, so you’re fit enough to go to school. If you argue with me anymore…”

He knew exactly what would happen, and he held his palms in front of him, a nonverbal expression of submission. He didn’t need a beating today, thank you very much. Reborn nodded, and then closed his door again. After he left, Tsuna’s body began to tremble, and before long, his legs collapsed and he began to slide down, until his back hit the side of his bed with a _clunk_ , and his knees drew up, to his chest.

He was certain it had only been three hours since he last fell asleep.

Time was moving too fast. This wasn’t right at all.

* * *

 

A knot of anxiety nestled deep into the pit of his gut.

He knew that just hours ago he woke up, ate his porridge, and went back to sleep. He remembered it all, and he knew he wasn’t _that_ tired that the day went by so quickly. If that were the case, the waves in his flames would have indicated that twelve hours passed like that, but they didn’t. Today was technically still Monday. Tsuna knew and felt it was still Monday, but everyone else operated as if it was Tuesday. This was strange, especially since no other world was like this. If time sped up, then the hours sped up along with it. It was still twenty four hours a day, but it happened at a faster rate. One minute felt like fifteen seconds. One hour felt like twenty minutes. A day felt like six hours.

But then again, Tsuna operated out of time. He switched timelines so many times that it felt like breathing. It was to be expected that time would feel rushed for him. Still, nothing felt quite like this.

“Aren’t you going to wave back, No-Good Tsuna?” Said boy stopped and looked up. Across the street was Yamamoto and Gokudera, who were waving back at Reborn and him rather wildly.

He ignored them. “I’ll see them at school; I don’t have to talk with them now.” But obviously, that wasn’t what Reborn wanted. He pulled at one of Tsuna’s strands of hair, tuning out Tsuna’s complaints, and then directed his attention back to his two friends.

“I don’t know why you always seem to think I’m giving you a choice, No-Good Tsuna. Either you’re going to go up to them and greet them, or I can guarantee that your new morning call will be marked by some intimate time with Leon here.”

“Must you always threaten me, Reborn?” He watched as Yamamoto and Gokudera paced closer, Gokudera who all but ran towards Tsuna, while Yamamoto walked briskly in an attempt to keep up with the half Italian. Too bad it didn’t work that well.

“Doesn’t seem like you’ll cooperate otherwise. You know, with your record, I thought you’d be jumping at the opportunity to make more friends.” And maybe, in his original timeline, Tsuna probably would have. Well, maybe not jump at it but. He would have definitely been more receptive and open to the idea. But he knew what happened when he made friends.

Then again, he was supposed to be keeping away from Reborn, and look how well that went. It was as if Reborn was born specifically to curse him. Even if he ran away from his house on that special day, Reborn would set out to find him, and in months, Tsuna would be back in his home again, with his oblivious mother not even realizing that he was gone for almost a half a year. Killing Reborn would be the quickest option, but he knew—especially after today, _after what he remembered_ —that he could never do that to him. Not only that, but although Tsuna could probably help the Arcobalerno babies, they were still the stronghold of this world. If he killed Reborn, either a new sacrifice would have to be used, or things would start dying out very quick on Earth. Reborn, after all, had the flames of Activation and healing.

Tsuna huffed as Gokudera was about two feet away from him. “Yeah, well. Reports aren’t always correct.”

“Apparently so.”

Tsuna spared a glance at Reborn, but Reborn was staring at Yamamoto and Gokudera. After a few exchanges, the four of them walked to school. After a while, Tsuna began to tune the three of them out, nodding at all the right times and humming when a response was necessary. His mind was on Mukuro again, and immediately, he thought of the almost helpless and pained expression that was on his face. He wondered how painful it felt to have his heart burned alive, how it must have felt to be burned from the inside out…

It was when he was thinking about such things that he smacked his head into something. Rubbing his head, Tsuna looked for what hit him.

…And did a double take. There, on someone’s tree—he really didn’t care to greet his neighbors all that much—stood a child in a cow’s outfit, with a grenade in his hand. Without taking a closer look, he knew it just _had_ to be Lambo, who probably just came to Japan recently.

The kid was after Reborn; he always was.

“I’ve finally found you, Reborn! And now that I have it’s time for you to die!”

And of course, said baby completely disregarded Lambo, which in turn made the child angrier.

“Hey! Did you hear me? I said, ‘it’s time for you to die!’” At this point, Gokudera and Yamamoto turned around to find the source of the noise. Gokudera found him first, especially since he was a Mafioso at heart and blood, and he stopped. But he wasn’t quick enough; Lambo had already thrown the grenades at them. He tried to warn Yamamoto to move, but not knowing what was happening, he simply stood there and watched. Gokudera quickly focused his attention to Tsuna.

“Tenth, please move out of the way!”

Oh, but Tsuna knew what was going to happen. He knew how much it hurt to be hit with a grenade. Not really wanting to be bothered to dodge, Tsuna scrunched up his face, caught them, and threw them right back at Lambo. His hands were clammy from nerves as he glanced at Reborn, who was staring at him. The baby raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t say anything as both Yamamoto and Gokudera surrounded him.

“Tenth, are you okay? You handled that very well!”

“Ah, yeah, I’m okay, thanks,” he replied as he watched Lambo fumble with the grenade. It blew up moments after, but they were already nearing the school building, and above the students’ chatter, it wasn’t considerably audible. Tsuna stopped for a brief moment, felt out for Lambo’s presence, and feeling his flames as strong as ever, sighed and continued walking.

There is no doubt he would come for Reborn again.

* * *

 

It was three weeks after his initial meeting with Lambo, and as annoying and loud as he was, his presence became similar to a routine for Tsuna. Strangely enough, the one who wasn’t there, despite being there in every single timeline he’s been to, was Bianchi. He waited for her to show up at his door one day, with two poisonous dishes in tow, but it was peaceful, sans the explosions every so often—no doubt in his room, since that became somewhat of a hiding place for Lambo—and he eventually relaxed. He could deal with this: a rowdy teenager that swore to be his friend, a baseball fanatic that clung onto his friends’ every word, a baby that had (somewhat) violent tendencies, and a trigger-happy kid in a cow’s suit. It was a bit hectic, but Tsuna felt that this was much better than some of the timelines out there. He even forgot about his sins for a while, about the fact that it was he who killed Mukuro around this time.

That is, until life personally gave him a startling reminder.

“Are you heading to the hospital too, Tsuna?”

Yamamoto was right beside him, walking at an even pace. Tsuna hadn’t even realized that Yamamoto was next to him until he said something, but he quickly shook himself out of his stupor.

“No, I was heading to school. Why, did something happen?”

“Yeah. A lot of our kids got attacked by a few kids from another school. It was completely random; upperclassman, lower classman, teachers, and pretty much anyone associated with Namimori.”

Tsuna’s heart stopped for a brief second.

“Is…is Gokudera-kun or Hibari-san hurt?”

“Well, Gokudera isn’t, but Hibari is. He went to follow them and got beaten up really badly. Everyone at school is so afraid of what might happen to them, so we are all staying in the hospital. I was heading there too to check up on my classmates.”

In a strange, almost twisted sense of justice, Tsuna supposed that this way payback for every single timeline that he had been bullied by his classmates. Had Hibari been unscathed, the levels of fear that his classmates would have would be significantly less. But since Hibari was harmed along with everyone else, their fear paralyzed them, so much so that they all felt like they had to stay in the hospital to avoid getting injured themselves.

“And…is Ryohei hurt as well?”

“Sasagawa? No, but his sister got hurt and he was in a rage. I don’t know if he’s still by her side, but I heard yesterday she was attacked. She was your friend too or something, right?”

But Tsuna couldn’t really hear what Yamamoto was saying. He mindlessly trudged into the hospital, not really caring about the anxious expressions on his classmates’ faces, and slowly walked to the back of the main wing. He found a seat near the darkest part of the room, and he sat down. He didn’t notice when Reborn followed him, but he did notice when he was right in front of him.

“What are you going to do now?”

“What can I do,” Tsuna replied dully. “There’s nothing I can do. Everything is already set in stone.”

“No. You can still make a difference and save them and yourself.” Tsuna stared at Reborn, who was standing right in front of him.

“How?”

“Find out the people who did this and defeat them.”

“…oh.” _But that’s just it,_ Tsuna wanted to say. He already knew who it was, and he already knew what would happen. And just like the last time, he would be faced with a choice: kill Mukuro and die quickly, or allow him to live, just like he usually had, and die slowly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! Now you know the general jist of the story: Tsuna is cursed, and for some reason or another, moves from timeline to timeline (and yes, there is a reason he does this). If you're confused about this, lemme know, I'll explain it to you via the story, just send me a PM or leave a review. And by the way, this is meant to be canon for the most part, so Tsuna having the ability to travel through time and through worlds is something he gained. How? You'll just have to find out. ^^
> 
> The next chapter marks the actual beginning of the plot of the story, and it's in Reborn's POV. :D So excited to write it. It's basically an interlude of sorts? From the beginning of the story to a little past the current time, it will cover through Reborn's eyes.
> 
> Thanks again for reading through! And as always, if there's any feedback you have, please feel free to tell me. :D


	6. Interlude: Awareness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reborn's POV.  
> Also, Reborn misunderstands Tsuna very badly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First thing. Y'all are going to hate my guts. This thing is 11k. I'm sorry T^T For some reason, my chapters keep getting longer and longer.
> 
> Second. Thanks for the comments! I really enjoyed reading and replying. I hope you guys like this one, too. Please feel free to tell me how you feel (flames or otherwise).
> 
> Third, changed the summary to properly portray this story.

A few days ago, Reborn put a manila envelope in the mail. There was nothing inside, because he figured that it would be a great way to observe his new pupil without actually interacting with him. From the report he was given and the last for days he observed his student, Sawada Tsunayoshi was a slow, careless, and clumsy child who was constantly bullied and really didn’t stand up for himself for _anything_. He was always ostracized by the teachers and he wasn’t particularly athletic. Perhaps he had a gentle heart, was what Reborn thought.

Well. This child had certainly crushed that idea.

Not only did Tsunayoshi oblivious to his letter for four days straight, but the day that he _did_ notice it, he ripped it into shreds.

Reborn figured that he had seen enough, and he went to greet his new pupil. He hopped over the fence, not really wanting to be bothered with pushing open the gate, and knocked on the door. There was some mumbles on the other side of the door before someone opened the door for him.

Ah. It was Sawada Tsunayoshi. And from the looks of it, he didn’t seem too pleased to see Reborn at all.

 “Ciaossu. I’m Reborn, your home tutor.” Immediately after he introduced himself, Tsunayoshi’s face steeled, and his chest puffed out a bit, as if he were gathering the courage to talk to him. Which, to Reborn, was strange, since his appearance was one of a child’s. Was Tsunayoshi _that_ cowardly that he had to breathe in, breathe out, and gather the nerve to talk to even a child such as himself?

“I’m sorry,” he began, his voice wavering a bit, “but I think you have the wrong household.”

For a second, there was nothing but silence between the two of them.

Reborn stared at this boy, who, to his face, just uttered a bold-faced lie, all without batting an eyelash. This wasn’t the right household? He knew this was the right household: he had been watching Tsunayoshi for four days straight; he watched as he walked to school, he watched as he came back home with bruises and marks and god knows what else, he watched as he ate with Nana, he watched Nana as she went shopping for groceries and came home to cook a meal for the two of them, and he managed the mail that came into their house. How could this _not_ be the right house?

Unless…there was a reason why Tsunayoshi didn’t want to interact with him. It was farfetched to believe that it had anything to do with the mafia; as far as both he and Iemitsu knew, Tsunayoshi knew nothing about Vongola or the family. So perhaps it had to do with trauma concerning children?

“This is the Sawada family, correct?” At Reborn’s insistent glare, Tsunayoshi stuttered in his lie a bit.

“No…”

But he didn’t have a chance to continue; right behind him was his mother, and she looked a tad bit confused as she peered over her son’s shoulder and met eye-to-eye with Reborn.

“Tsu-kun, what’s taking you so long?”

“Someone got the wrong house,” he quickly replied, glancing again quickly in Reborn’s direction. “I’ll be there in a second.”

But Nana wouldn’t give him the chance, something that he was grateful to her for. “Oh, you’re bad at directions. Let me at it.”

“But—”

“Don’t worry about it. Now don’t you have to head to school?”

“School can wait, mom. I want to help him.” His tone became desperate; his pitch increased just a tad. Just another sign that he was lying through his teeth.

Reborn wouldn’t give him a chance to refuse this. At any rate, if he was turned away now, he would simply return back tomorrow. He decided to take another route instead.

“Do you know where the Sawada household is? I thought it was here, because a letter was addressed to here, but—”

“There was no letter here,” Nana interrupted, “But this is the Sawada household. What is it that you might need?”

She was providing him an opportunity to explain himself. He could see it as clear as day.

And he would not let that go to waste.

“I’m the home tutor for Sawada Tsunayoshi,” he declared, flickering his fedora upwards to get a good look at Tsunayoshi’s mother. She didn’t seem surprised in the least, which made him wonder. Most parents wouldn’t take so calmly that a baby was a home tutor for a teenage boy. How was it that she was so calm—alleviated, even—about it?

“Oh, you’re talking about Tsu-kun, then!”

“I don’t need a home tutor,” Tsunayoshi quickly bit out as he pushed past his mother to run into the house and then back to the door. He pulled his shoes from the side of the doorway and then he questioned his mom about Reborn once more.

“Mom, can’t you send him away?”

“You’ll have better grades,” Nana retorted. Tsunayoshi huffed as he stood up, obviously not liking at all that his mother wasn’t taking his side. And she shouldn’t, either. Tsunayoshi’s grades were atrocious. The last few grades he earned were no higher than the teens. It was pathetic, but it was even more pathetic that he didn’t really care about his grades enough to graciously accept a tutor.

Even if what that tutor excelled in had nothing to do with academics.

Once Tsunayoshi ran enough that he was out of earshot, Reborn glanced at his mother again. She stared down at him, with a smile fully etched on her face. He waited for her to say something, but it seems as if she was the one waiting for _him_ to speak, almost as if she knew that he wanted to say something else. He decided to speak up when a minute passed and she still said nothing.

“Would you mind if I stayed here for a while? I intend to tutor Tsunayoshi full time.” Nana’s eyes brightened, almost as if she were waiting to hear those words.

“Oh, of course! But…how much is the fee?”

“It’s free.” Then, considering that his mother might think of him as a scammer, added, “Consider it a gift from your husband.”

“Iemitsu? He sent you?”

“…in a manner of speaking. I’m going with your son to school, so I’ll see you tonight. And thank you for letting me stay.”

He ran after Tsunayoshi, and seeing that he _really_ didn’t run that far—seriously, how athletically challenged could he _be_?—hopped on his shoulder. He felt Tsunayoshi’s shoulders tense, but after a second’s thought, his body relaxed again. Accepting the fact that someone was on his shoulder. Accepting Reborn’s presence.

Almost as if he were used to this.

“You’re a student of Namimori Middle, right?” Tsunayoshi stopped.

“I can—”

“For your sake and mine,” he interrupted, “please leave me alone. I don’t want anything to do with you.” He grabbed Reborn by his waist and gently lowered him to the ground and continued to run. For a second, Reborn was a bit dumbfounded. He had expected that Tsuna would have tried to shake him off, or maybe push him off. After all, it wasn’t as if he crawled up the boy’s body. He didn’t expect to be held so gently like that.

Maybe there _was_ hope for him after all.

He ran after his pupil again and hopped on his shoulder. He waited to be shaken off, but all Tsuna did was sigh.

“Didn’t I tell you to leave me alone?”

“I don’t give up that easily,” he retorted as he adjusted his weight on his shoulder.

“You really should,” Tsuna muttered.

“And why is that?”

“I don’t have a tolerance for babies.” So it _was_ trauma. Well. That certainly made Reborn’s job harder, but he was the world’s best hitman for a reason. He was used to situations that didn’t work well in his favor. This would be no different.

“Well, deal with it, because you’re stuck with me for a long time. Your mother already gave her consent.”

“To a _stranger_ in the house?”

“Most certainly. Besides. What could a little kid like me do?” At that, Tsuna scoffed a bit, but he quickly turned it into a cough when Reborn’s eyes bore into his.

“In any case,” Reborn continued, hopping off of his shoulder, “You’re stuck with me as your tutor. And I _will_ be your tutor, so prepare yourself.”

* * *

 

After Tsuna walked into his classroom, Reborn made full use of his hideouts. He had a great deal of them littered like dust all over the school campus. Bathrooms, closets, classrooms, any place that was open to the public—and even those that were not—Reborn created a hideout there.

At the moment, he was his hideout that ran perpendicular to his pupil’s classroom. It wasn’t that intricate; it was a quaint room with a dainty oak chair adjacent to a table small enough to fit in the palm of an adult’s hand. He had a coffee maker that he ordered specially from Italy next to his table on a little ivory pedestal of its own, and he had a grey metal shelf that contained all of the files he collected on Tsuna.

Reborn pulled out the report that he was given and slowly drank the coffee he had made. Through the holes in the tile, he could hear the teacher berating Tsuna for answering the question incorrect, and he sighed. The teacher _really_ shouldn’t be doing that, but it was also Tsuna’s fault for not studying. Had Tsuna taken his studies seriously, there was no way that Nakamura could have _ever_ made him into a laughing stock.

But then again, wasn’t that part of the reason Tsuna was being tutored?

He paused, and then he shifted the tile to the left just a tad, just so he could have a clear view of what was going on. He watched as the students laughed at him, and watched as his new pupil sat down bashfully and held his head down. He watched as Tsuna spared a glance at Kyoko, and he watched as his nerves released ever so slightly.

And then he watched—and waited—for Tsuna to pull back up his head, to get over the shame.

But he never did. He simply laid his head on his desk for the duration of that class, and the next class, and the class after that, and then, when the fifth bell had rang, lifted his lifeless body up and trudged to the direction of the rooftop, as if all the weight of the world was on his shoulders.

Reborn didn’t think he could watch this pathetic show any longer.

He neatened up his hideout, drank the rest of his coffee, and ran to the rooftop. He had a feeling that Tsuna was by himself; no, he knew that Tsuna was alone, not only because, according to his files, Tsuna was constantly bullied, but also because…well. Just from what he observed in the classroom, it was close to impossible that he had anyone on his side.

When he finally arrived on the rooftop, he saw that Tsuna was staring down at his food with a somewhat morose expression on his face. He briskly walked up to Tsuna and smacked him in the face.

At first, Tsuna’s face whipped to the side from the impact, but the boy himself didn’t cry out in pain. Which was strange, because although he didn’t hit him with all of his strength, he knew it _had_ to have hurt.

Almost as if Tsuna himself registered the pain, he took his cheek into his hand and he rubbed it.

“Reborn! What was that for?” He scrutinized Tsuna’s face before he answered him.

“What was that pathetic excuse for an answer back in the classroom?”

Recognition flitted in his eyes for a moment before he turned his face away from Reborn. “It can’t be helped; I’m no good in math.”

As if that was an excuse. “Not that, No-Good Tsuna. You didn’t even try to answer the question. And don’t tell me you did, or I’ll hit you harder than I did just now.”

“I _did_ try! And how did you find out about my nickname anyways?” Seriously. Was he _seriously_ trying to convince Reborn that he tried? He started to tell him just that, but Tsuna cut him off before he could continue.

“At any rate, you have no right accusing me of something I didn’t do. I tried, I’m just not good at—”

Reborn’s fist tightened, and Leon, knowing his master’s desire, shifted into a hammer. A person like this was hopeless, and what they needed was a few hits to make them see things his way. Especially if they were going to be staying together for a long while. He gripped Leon hard, and still facing Tsuna, thrust the chameleon into the boy’s face.

“Didn’t I tell you not to lie to me? I can tell the difference of someone who isn’t trying and someone who is. I’m seriously going to hurt you, No-Good Tsuna.”

“Why are you even bothering me about this anyways? In fact, why are you even _here_? I thought I told you to leave me alone earlier.”

“And I thought I told you that I don’t give up easily. Are you going to continue to fight me on this, No-Good Tsuna?” He raised his hammer in warning, and Tsuna backed off, almost tipping over the lunch box his mother made for him. He glanced over his food and then he raised his hands in surrender.

“Okay, okay! I get it! I’m sorry, okay?” Reborn also glanced at the food and then he plopped next to him. After all, although he came here to confront him about his abominable behavior, he also came here to keep him company. And what use would his company be if Tsuna feared him all the time?

“As long as you understand. If you don’t have motivation for this, then you won’t have motivation for your family either.” Tsuna scrunched his eyes a little and then cocked his head.

“My mom has enough motivation for the both of us. Why would I need to have motivation for her?” At first, Reborn wanted to insult him. But then he remembered that he came under the guise of a home tutor, and including the fact that Tsuna didn’t know anything about the mafia, he probably didn’t even know of the family Reborn was speaking of.

“Not that family. Your mafia family.” Oh. Well then. He supposed he now knew Tsuna’s feelings about the mafia if that scowl was any indication.

“I don’t want to be a part of the mafia! I don’t know how many times I have to—”

“You’re going to be the leader, no matter what. Stop arguing with me about it; it’s going to happen whether you like it or not.” Reborn glanced at his food again, and then at the sun. Almost thirty minutes have passed since he came up to the rooftop. “Aren’t you going to eat? Your break is almost over, you know.”

“Oh, right.” Tsuna started to eat, and in seconds, Reborn heard a hoarse, almost strangled laugh. He glanced at Tsuna, who looked as if he wanted to spit out the food.

“Why do you look as if something died in your mouth? It doesn’t taste good?”

“It tastes fine. Do you want some?”

“No. Your mother made that for you, didn’t she? Then don’t give it to me.”

Tsuna nodded and continued to shovel food down his throat. The more he ate, the more his complexion began to pale, but he continued eating. He considered telling Tsuna to stop, but instead observed him.

And when Tsuna got up and ran to the bathroom, Reborn followed him. He heard his breathless gasps as he regurgitated everything he just ate.

After the whole vomiting incident, Reborn paid even closer attention to Tsuna. He wasn’t certain that Tsuna was sick, but he wasn’t going to let him faint on him just like that. It was strange, though. Tsuna seemed fine all that morning, and yesterday night, he ate the food that Nana prepared for him just fine, so he knew it wasn’t Nana’s cooking. Perhaps something she made didn’t agree with him.

When Tsuna came out of the classroom after his last class, he looked even worse than before. His complexion was pale, his skin wet with sweat, and his eyes were sunken in. His white collar was rumpled and undone, and his pants still looked a bit damp from when he washed off his uniform in the bathroom.

He noticed when a few of Tsuna’s classmates bullied him in plain sight, right in front of his classroom, and no one, not even the teachers that occasionally passed by, gave a helping hand to the boy. He watched as they treated his pupil like a living punching bag, and getting rather irritated, was ready to step in.

Until Tsuna did something.

Reborn couldn’t tell if Tsuna subconsciously used his flames, but he did _something_. He could tell. There was a determination in the boy’s eyes, and he was sure of himself. Frighteningly sure of himself.

Which is why, perhaps, he covered up Tsuna’s attempt at murder into an accident with the police and the school. Because at that moment, Tsuna had earned Reborn’s interest.

Tsuna had potential, whether the child knew it or not.

* * *

 

It had been five days since he first met Tsuna.

The reports weren’t _completely_ wrong, but they sure as hell weren’t right. There wasn’t a cowardly bone in this child’s body, if his attempt at fighting back his classmates was any indication. Not to mention that this child wouldn’t listen to him. He was stubborn as a mule, and he was combative like one, too. He was athletically challenged, sure, but he was smart. He _chose_ to get the answers wrong on his test; he _chose_ to write the wrong answers on the board, which was a far cry from what he observed before. His only question was why Tsuna found it necessary to do it.

His first gut feeling was laziness. But then he thought about it more, and he figured it was too early to jump to conclusions. Perhaps he was afraid of standing out too much.

“Did you finish your schoolwork?” Reborn climbed on the desk next to Tsuna’s textbook, and he quickly glanced at all of the answers that he written.

Wrong. Wrong. All wrong. Again.

“No…not yet. It’s too hard, can we take a break?” Says the person who knew all of the answers and still wrote down all of the wrong answers. It wasn’t even like Tsuna _tried_ to write answers that were farfetched and nonsensical; he wrote all odd questions at least ten to fifteen numbers from the right answer, and wrote all even questions twenty-five numbers from the right answer. Subtract twenty-five on all of the even questions and subtract ten on all of the odd questions, and you get the right answer. Who did Tsuna really think he was fooling?

“No. Do it again.”

“But we’ve been at it for almost two hours!”

“I guess you better put that brain of yours to good use then,” the baby replied lazily. “Oh, and. Since dinner is in eighteen minutes, I suggest you hurry. You won’t be able to eat.” Tsuna glared at him, and he only smirked back.

“I haven’t been able to find the right answer for hours; how am I going to find the right answer in less than twenty minutes?”

“I’m sure you’ll find a way, No-Good Tsuna.”

“Stop calling me that,” Tsuna snapped as he erased all of his answers. He watched as Tsuna’s eyes quickly scanned the entire page of his algebra textbook before his eyes concentrated on a number, and then he started to rewrite all of the equations.

All of his answers were now fifty-seven numbers away from the correct answer.

“Stop.” Tsuna froze as Reborn stood up.

“How about this.” Reborn waited until Leon transformed into a hammer and pointed it at his pupil. “If you don’t get the answers right in ten minutes, I’ll have to be forced to give you some intimate time with Leon here.”

“But—”

“No buts, No-Good Tsuna. You better hurry up, I’m timing you, starting now.”

Suffice it to say, he got all the answers right in nine minutes. But even then, Reborn was almost certain that was on purpose.

* * *

 

There was something off with Tsuna.

He was still pathetically lazy when it came to his studies, and he couldn’t run to save his life, and although he never really had to concern himself with bullying anymore—after all, he scared everyone shitless with that stunt he pulled on his first day back to school—the fact that he did that in the first place always had Reborn thinking about how odd he was. That he had the courage to do it, despite him being bullied day after day. Why didn’t he do it sooner? Why now?

But that wasn’t what caught Reborn off guard. He could justify those acts fairly easy.

What he couldn’t justify was how calm Tsuna was when he shot him with the Deathperation Bullet.

It was the day that Gokudera confronted him—the Thursday after he bumped into Yamamoto in the hallway. He saw Yamamoto out of the corner of his eye hiding behind the side of the science building, but he knew that he was going to get involved sooner or later, so him witnessing the power of the Deathperation Bullet wasn’t anything much.

But Tsuna. He was something much. Especially since the Deathperation Bullet’s function was to make Tsuna come to his Dying Will’s point. Tsuna acting like that meant that he was _always_ at his Dying Will.

Moreover, the flames emitted from the Deathperation Bullet were being absorbed into Tsuna’s skin and were slowly being replaced with Tsuna’s flames. He wasn’t sure if they were actually Tsuna’s, but such rich flames couldn’t have come from the bullet, since that bullet didn’t have the capacity to do that.

He observed, faster than he had ever seen anyone move under the influence of the Deathperation Bullet, Tsuna snuff out every bomb that Gokudera lit, even the one that was right next to him. When Gokudera set off another dozen bombs and accidentally set one off too close to himself, Tsuna practically sprinted to catch that one first, not even caring that he could hurt himself.

And then there was his aura.

Reborn really never thought to read people’s auras, but he had the ability to do so, not only because he was an Arcobalerno, but also because he was a hitman. The world’s best hitman, at that. When he first met Tsuna, he never really thought to sense his aura, because the reports indicated that his aura would be weak at best.

But man. When he fought against Gokudera, it was overwhelming, his aura that was. It almost consumed _him_ alive. He couldn’t help but be impressed. He had so much untapped potential, even without training. That in it of itself was alarming.

But even then. Although it wasn’t justifiable, it could be that the reports were flawed at best. It already proved to be flawed concerning Tsuna’s behavioral patterns. Though. Even that was questionable. How could someone change so much in a day? Had Reborn spoke to him just a day prior than he did, would he have seen the same defiance, the same strength? He wasn’t sure.

And then there was the morning after it was all said and done.

Reborn was awake, staring into the ceiling, tracing the chips of ivory paint that was peeling away and cracking at the edges with his eyes when he heard a small shift in the bed below him. Thinking that Tsuna was awake, he was just about to chastise him, but instead he just stared at him as Tsuna fisted the sheets in his palms, shifting his head side to side.

Watching as he had a nightmare, calling out the name of a criminal that he hasn’t heard of in a while.

 _Mukuro_. _Mukuro_. _Mukuro_.

And then he all but jumped out of his bed, sweat racing down his forehead, eyes searching for something that wasn’t there, right hand on his heart, most likely beating at several hundred beats per minute. In seconds, he ripped the sheets from his knees, where they were pooled after he woke, and he stumbled out of the room into the hallway, his feet constantly slipping along the polished wood, his hand supporting his body as he made his way into the bathroom. He could hear the gasps—same as before, in the bathroom at his school, breathless, suffocating, uncontrollable—as Tsuna regurgitated nothing but pure acid and perhaps extra fluid.

Reborn jumped from his bed, ran down the steps to the dining room, and found the nearest cup—an unused Styrofoam cup with a dent on the edge—and filled it with cold tap water. He ran to the bathroom, where Tsuna was still hunched over the toilet bowl, and side stepping him, grabbed the plain cobalt toothbrush that was on the ledge of the bathtub, and smeared some of the toothpaste that Tsuna religiously used.

After a while, Tsuna looked back at him, his eyes watery and red from vomiting for so long, and he nodded his head in thanks and took the toothbrush and water from Reborn.

“Thanks,” Tsuna mumbled as he slowly stood up, one shaking toothbrush in one hand, and the other slowly pulling his weight up. He stuck the toothbrush in his mouth and stared at himself in the mirror. And then, almost as if he couldn’t bear the sight of himself, darted his eyes away.

“I ate something bad last night,” Tsuna lied as he wiped his mouth with a daffodil patterned towel. Deciding to humor his lie, Reborn asked:

“What did you eat to make you so sick like that?”

“Oh, well…I think I had some of the radishes in the fridge.” Radishes. Was that the best that Tsuna could do? There _were_ no radishes in the fridge. Still feeling humored, the baby confirmed:

“The daikon radishes?”

“Yeah…” He finished wiping his face, and avoiding contact with Reborn’s probing eyes, gazed out of the bathroom window.

It was almost six in the morning.

“No, you can’t stay out sick today, Tsuna. You have work to do, and you’re getting abysmal grades without taking days off. How low do you think your GPA can go?”

“Not much lower,” he admitted bashfully. “But…if I can prove to you that my grades can go up, will you let me stay home today?”

Oh, Reborn knew that Tsuna’s grades could go up. For the last two weeks that he’s been with this child, he realized that Tsuna was anything but stupid. If he put his mind to it, he could get a perfect GPA. But whether or not he _would_ actually do it—not just claim it to get the day off—that was up to debate.

Reborn made a noncommittal hum in the back of his throat, still debating on whether or not to allow Tsuna to stay home. Chances were, it was up to him to make the decision; from the looks of the relationship between his pupil and Nana, she allowed him to do whatever he wanted. He wasn’t sure yet if it was a lack of care on Nana’s part, or if she was simply that carefree—most likely the latter, since she did allow him, a total stranger, to stay with the two of them—but he didn’t want to take the chance with her.

But then he took in his student’s appearance: his sunken, red, watery eyes, his shaking fingers, his clammy skin, his horrible complexion, and…

 _Mukuro_.

He sighed. He supposed he could give in. Even if he forced Tsuna to come to school, if he upchucked in the middle of class, he would most likely be sent home anyhow. He could control the school only so much after all.

“Fine,” he finally conceded. He walked out of the bathroom, the door in his hand, ready to give Tsuna his privacy. “But you are to get your own notes from your friends, so you don’t fall behind. Understand?”

“Yeah I will. Thanks, Reborn,” Tsuna said gratefully. Reborn nodded, and then he closed the door.

He left, made Tsuna’s porridge, collected Tsuna’s porridge when he ate it all—and found residue Sun flames, which surprised him, since he knew that these flames _couldn’t_ have been Tsuna’s, since he had Sky flames, which means he most likely leaked some of his own into the porridge (not like it would have harmed Tsuna any)—and then watched over him for the rest of the night.

And then, when he had enough and it was the next morning, Tsuna gifted him with another surprise.

“No-Good Tsuna, I’m giving you five seconds to get up before I hurt you.” Tsuna shifted around as he started counting. But then at five, when he shifted Leon into a hammer and he swung, Tsuna’s eyes popped open, and faster than Reborn had ever seen his pupil move, he threw off the covers and flipped out of the way. _Flipped_.

And for a moment, there was nothing but the sound of Tsuna’s teeth grinding, seething, all while he was still crouching—most likely because Reborn was seconds away from destroying the only bed he had—and then he straightened out and began to yell at him. But Reborn didn’t really care about the fact that he was mad, because Tsuna, in that one moment, displayed more flexibility and speed than most that he knew, and he did it without blinking an eye. On reflex. Without the aid of the Deathperation Bullet.

Which meant that all of this time, Tsuna was holding back his physical prowess as well.

“What the heck, Reborn?! Have you forgotten that I was sick earlier?” Reborn ignored him, still trying to figure out how was it that he didn’t—no, _couldn’t_ —figure out this boy’s potential. How was it that he observed him for almost a month, but he didn’t know he had this much potential in him? He was the world’s best hitman, and yet he couldn’t even gauge the abilities of a child?

Something was wrong. It was as if there was something blocking his senses, and while Reborn really didn’t notice before, it was really starting to irritate him now. Just a bit.

“It was a reflex,” Tsuna tried to sugarcoat, and then he flinched from what he said, from what he revealed. But knowing that what he did was hopeless, he plowed on.

“I mean, you surprised me. I didn’t want to get hit or anything. Couldn’t you have woken me up the regular way?”

“You won’t get training from me coddling you.”

“I may not get training, but I can learn to trust you,” Tsuna said, rotating his shoulder to ease the tension that most likely came with the whiplash. That means that he wasn’t used to moving at that speed. That, at the very least, was comforting. But Reborn wondered why he didn’t hone it, even if it wasn’t at school.

 _At the very least_ , Reborn wondered as he stared at his pupil, _why didn’t he tell me anything_? _Why didn’t he correct me when I made those assumptions about him? Why didn’t he_ do _something? Does he have no faith in the one in the one who is supposed to be training him?_

And trust? At this point in time, Reborn was wondering if _he_ could trust Tsuna. He knew a very infamous criminal somehow—despite the reports saying that he was in no way connected to the mafia—he had a handle on his flames, and he had physical prowess. And judging by the fact he was crouching after he dodged Leon, he was most likely anticipating another attack, which meant he knew how to fight in some way, shape, or form.

He felt so ridiculously foolish. He underestimated his pupil based on an erroneous report. Not once did he ever interact with him, because he rightly assumed that he didn’t have to. At least, with Dino’s report, it was accurate to a tee. He observed Tsuna for four days, and he scrutinized all of his behavioral patterns. Wimpy, weak, clumsy, stupid, he saw it all.

Then that meant that he wasn’t wrong. Something happened that fourth night, something that only Tsuna knew about.

But even then, the question floated back into his head: how could a person change so much in one night?

“That’ll come with time,” he said, and Tsuna frowned, obviously disliking what he said. But he still nodded, most likely not wanting to refute Reborn.

“Good. You’re going to be late for school, so hurry up.” Again, Tsuna nodded, but almost as if the words registered in his head, he did a double take.

“Wait, _what_?”

“I let you sleep the entire night, Tsuna. You don’t look sick anymore, so you’re fit enough to go to school. If you argue with me anymore…”

He knew exactly what would happen, and he held his palms in front of him, a nonverbal expression of submission. After a while, Reborn nodded again, and then he left the room.

That wasn’t all, though.

Tsuna knew about the reports, despite Reborn never talking about them. And he knew Lambo, although he tried his best to appear as if he didn’t know him. His face, his expression, his aura, and the micro gesture when he threw the grenade back at Lambo. They were all indicators that he knew him. Perhaps they met once before; perhaps Tsuna took care of him when Lambo got lost or something (which, to be completely honest, seemed like a very plausible scenario).

And then there was Mukuro.

Roughly one month and two weeks since he met Tsuna, Mukuro and his gang started to attack the students and faculty of Namimori. Everyone was anxious of what would happen, Gokudera and Ryohei included. Yamamoto was more concerned with what happened to his team mates.

But Tsuna. Tsuna was always the exception.

What are you going to do now?”

“What can I do,” Tsuna replied dully. “There’s nothing I can do. Everything is already set in stone.”

He was talking about more than one thing. Then. Had he dealt with Mukuro, and it didn’t turn out well? Did Mukuro threaten him, perhaps? It was a possibility with that megalomaniac.

“No. You can make a difference and save them and yourself.”

“How?”

“Find out the people who did this and defeat them.”

But obviously, that wasn’t the answer that Tsuna was looking for. Or perhaps, it _was_ the answer he was looking for, but didn’t want to hear.

“…oh.”

There was always something off about Tsuna. Sadly, even after a month of staying with him, Reborn still wasn’t sure what it was.

* * *

 

 “Are you ready?”

The five of them—Tsuna, Reborn, Yamamoto, Gokudera, and Hibari, who claimed he had a debt to pay to someone (Reborn couldn’t imagine who _that_ could be)—were standing in front of the dilapidated, abandoned school building. Tsuna shivered a bit, but Reborn knew it wasn’t because of the appearance of the building or because it was cold. Because it really wasn’t.

It was because he had to face Mukuro again. Which. He still hasn’t confronted his student about.

“Y-yeah.” He wiped his clammy hands on his jean pants. “Honestly, I’d rather just get this over with, so we can go back home.”

“Do you remember the plan?” The four of them nodded.

“Alright, great. Now, if you feel that you’re about to pass out, don’t try to fight them anymore. Although there is only three of them, they’re known to be very ruthless, as some of us know,” Reborn said, and gazed at Tsuna, who avoided his probing eyes.

“What about the Tenth?”

“Tsuna will be fine, Gokudera. He’ll be coming along with me to fight Mukuro. Don’t worry about anything and just stick to the plan.”

The five of them split up; Yamamoto ran after Gokudera, and Hibari ran in a completely different direction. Because of the last time that Hibari ambushed the three of them, they all knew where the area they would generally be staying in.

Tsuna ran past classroom after classroom, all of them in terrible shape, until he arrived at the room that was once a gymnasium, and, with a trembling hand on his heart, gripped the doorknob.

“What are you waiting for, Tsuna? Hurry up and go in,” Reborn prodded.

“I-I know,” Tsuna muttered. He took a deep breath in and he pushed opened the door, wincing at the complaints of the door as it creaked.

“I know where you are, Mukuro. Please do us both a favor and come out. I really won’t want to delay this any longer than I have to.”

For a few minutes, there was nothing but the dripping of leaking water, the rats that scurried across the peeling wood, the soft flutters of the ripped curtains, and the creaking wood as Tsuna walked forward, searching for Mukuro. But a second later, Reborn felt _his_ aura, and simultaneously, Tsuna dodged to the right.

“Impressive, Vongola the Tenth. You’re even sharper than I heard,” Mukuro casually stated as he walked from the very far side of the gym, next to the storage room.

“How’d you know I would attack from there?”

“Call it a lucky guess,” Tsuna said. “Please stop fooling around; I really, _really_ don’t want to drag this out longer than I have to.”

“I thought that you’d ask me not to fight you. I heard you were rather the pacifist.” Tsuna shrugged, and Reborn hopped off of his shoulder, watching his student from afar and readying his gun in case the fight went south and he was on the verge of dying. Though, from how sharp his reflexes were—he sensed it even earlier than Reborn anticipated he would have—he knew it probably wouldn’t have been a problem.

“Well, you heard wrong. Besides, I know better than anyone else that you won’t back down even if I begged on my hands and knees.”

“Oh, do you, now? I didn’t think you knew me well enough for that, considering this is the first time we’ve met.”

“No, this is the first time I’ve met you, too. Just. I have a feeling,” Tsuna mumbled. He glanced at Reborn, most likely waiting for him to shoot the Deathperation Bullet at him.

Oh. That’s what it was.

Tsuna’s new heightened abilities were because of his Hyper Intuition. He knew very well that because Tsuna was blood-related to the Vongola family, he was supposed to have potential as a mafia boss. That’s why he was scouted in the first place. But Reborn didn’t realize _how much_ potential he had. Most likely, all of those things that Reborn was suspicious of: his physical abilities, his handle on his flames, his reflexes, and his heightened intelligence, those were all a result of his Hyper Intuition. Perhaps Reborn’s flames—although he was almost certain he had a tight rein on them—is what unlocked his Hyper Intuition in the first place. And it’s also most likely that Tsuna registered within himself that something changed, but didn’t know how to handle it, and tried to act the same as always.

Though. That still doesn’t explain how he knew Mukuro in the first place. But…perhaps his Hyper Intuition warned him that something like this would happen. He has seen cases where a person’s Hyper Intuition has forewarned its host about a situation or person they will face in the future. It happened to Luce, after all…

All of this time, he was worrying, thinking that Tsuna was something that he was not, when he _could_ have been honing his abilities, especially since Tsuna didn’t really care to. How foolish. What a complete and utter waste of time these last two months have been.

He grimaced, inserted a bullet and fired it right at Tsuna’s head, watching as he fell down, the Deathperation Bullet’s flames being absorbed into Tsuna’s body again, making those flames his own, and he felt his pride rise a bit. What a student he has been given.

Still. He hasn’t heard of a person’s Hyper Intuition being unlocked all at once. Usually, it happens over a period of time, and even then, it’s after a person matures physically and mentally that he shows signs of his Hyper Intuition manifesting itself. But it wasn’t completely surprising, considering Tsuna’s abilities. It was just unusual.

He watched as Tsuna ran towards Mukuro and threw a punch to his gut, one which he dodged, and extended his Trident towards Tsuna. By the skin of his teeth, he managed to dodge it, rolling on the ground, and got back up to throw another punch.

“You’ve never fought before, have you, Vongola the Tenth? Your stance is terrible,” Mukuro mocked. His eye flashed, a number in red engraved into his eye lighting up, and then he simply stood there, watching as the wooden floor below him broke into jagged shards right before his eyes. Reborn quickly got up and ran over to Tsuna. There was no way he would know what was going on; most people couldn’t tell the difference between what were illusions and what were not, and although Tsuna had an extremely high amount of potential, even he had his limits.

As he expected, Tsuna freaked out, clinging to the ground, screaming as if his life depended on it.

“Snap out of it,” Reborn yelled before he slapped him in the face, watching as he blinked once, twice, and then he got up and looked at his hands. As if he didn’t know where he was, as if he was in a stupor. And then he stared in Reborn’s face.

“I…”

“That was an illusion, Tsuna,” he explained, watching his student take it all in. Tsuna frowned, and then he looked at his hands again. They were trembling, and Tsuna clenched and relaxed his hands repeatedly to calm his nerves.

“You’re not going to help your student? He looks like he could use some help, Arcobalerno,” Mukuro suggested. Reborn shifted and gazed into the criminal’s face; he was inches away from the two of them. He stared down at them with something akin to pity. “Even if I _am_ cruel, I do have my limits. Though if you decide not to help him, that’s all the more better for me.”

“No, my student can defeat you even without my help,” Reborn said. He gave the two of them distance, and Tsuna glanced back at him. He stared and stared and for a second, Reborn felt rattled; he felt as if Tsuna was looking through him, as if he was really seeing the type of person he was living with for the last two months.

And then Mukuro attacked, making Tsuna’s focus return to Mukuro.

“Your teacher has a lot of faith in you. It’s a shame you’ll be letting him down,” Mukuro muttered as he changed his stance, the number in his eye switching again. Tsuna braced himself as well, but then he bent over in a coughing fit. Mukuro used that chance to attack him, kicking him square in the stomach, watching in sadistic satisfaction as the child’s body all but flew to the other side of the gymnasium, hitting the wall with a sickening _snap_. He could hear Tsuna’s screams all the way from the other side of the room.

“I guess that’s that. Looks like your little student couldn’t defeat me after all,” he smiled. He ran over to Tsuna, determined to finish the job, when Leon shot from Reborn’s hand and flew in front of Tsuna, his shape transforming into a ball. It was something that Reborn had never seen before—although Leon had transformed when Dino was evolving as a student, but even then, he was never actually protecting him—and he watched in awe as Mukuro’s Trident bounced off its body. Mukuro was surprised, but he tried again, getting the same result. The more he tried was the more that Leon extended itself around Tsuna, its body changing from a dark green to an iridescent clear. It was chewing something, but it spit it out and gave it to Tsuna, who was still coughing on the floor. He noticed it and he sat up, still heaving, and stared at what Leon gave him.

It was a pair of gloves and a pill that Reborn had never seen before.

But apparently Tsuna did.

“Is…is this for me, Leon?” Tsuna grabbed the gloves and the pill, staring at the pill for a second before his eyes widened.

“…you. You shouldn’t have did this for me. I could have handled it on my own,” Tsuna said to Leon in a voice so low that Reborn could only strain to hear what he was saying. He wondered what the pill Leon gave him was. He’d ask him later.

Mukuro finally used his power of illusion to break down the barrier Leon made using snakes, but Leon already gave the objects to Tsuna, and it began to slink over to Reborn, its form being in pieces from the snakes that bit its form.

“I don’t know what that little chameleon did, but this doesn’t change anything.” Mukuro attacked again, but Tsuna dodged it, albeit at the skin of his teeth. He slipped on the gloves and swallowed the pill, and a flame—a flame so pure and so bright that it was transparent, appearing like a crystal under an artificial light—materialized on his head, and Tsuna ran to Mukuro and punched him twice: once in his left ribs and the second in his solar plexus. This time, it was Mukuro who flew into the wall, and he did so with a crash, his body breaking the door to the storage room and hitting that room’s wall with a crack. Tsuna ran to the storage room and he turned on the lights.

Mukuro was unconscious.

“That was quick,” Reborn muttered as he walked right next to Tsuna. “What happened when you swallowed that pill?” He had a feeling Leon gave him an amplifier—which, again, spoke volumes about the child’s abilities, as he just took down one of the mafia’s most dangerous criminals single-handedly—but he wanted to verify with Tsuna.

“I…” Tsuna swallowed, and instead approached Mukuro, hoisting him up by his waist, staring at his unconscious face. “I don’t know what Leon gave me. I don’t even know why he did what he did. Mukuro wouldn’t have killed me and…but. After I swallowed the pill, a lot of my injuries healed, I think. I feel like I’m being healed every second. I can’t quite explain…and then I felt my body get really hot, and then I felt…invincible?” He laughed, still holding Mukuro by the waist, dragging him out of the storage room. “It sounds so childish when I say it like that.”

Reborn hummed. That seemed like a lie; Tsuna knew _exactly_ what he took, but he wasn’t going to push it anymore. Not today.

“Not really. What are you doing with Mukuro?”

“I ah…I want to take Mukuro to a hospital.” Reborn froze. Was this child serious? He’s going to heal the person that just tried to kill him? That…that kind of kindness was going to get him killed. Yes, he knew that—he knew ever since Tsuna handled him so gently that first day, despite disliking children—but this was really, really bad. Not to mention that the Vindice were going to come at any moment.

“Are you serious? What about Gokudera and Yamamoto and Hibari?”

“They’re fine, I think. At the moment, Mukuro is the one in the most critical condition,” Tsuna replied as he set the teenager down on the floor a few ways away from the storage room.

“And how would you know that?”

“Uh. I just…” Tsuna examined his face, almost as if he were finding something. Then, he said, “I just had a feeling.”

“Ah.” His Hyper Intuition. Of course. “Still. You can’t just—”

“Please, Reborn? I know he isn’t a bad person. I mean, he _is_ , but he has a nice heart. He just needs a—” He stopped mid-sentence, his head darting at the door.

At once, the doors of the gymnasium opened, and the Vindice stepped through, with two people on chains. Reborn remembered them to be Ken and Chikusa. He backed away from the Vindice, not really wanting to get caught with them. But Tsuna, Tsuna was another story.

One of them threw a chain on Mukuro’s neck and pulled, but Tsuna grabbed Mukuro’s foot.

“Can you please forgive him and let him go, please? Please, I know he’s a criminal, but he doesn’t really mean harm. If he has a debt, I’ll pay for his sins.”

They ignored him and continued to pull him along the gymnasium, and Mukuro’s foot was yanked out of Tsuna’s hand. Reborn ran up to him in fear—he didn’t know what they were going to do, and he couldn’t bear to explain to Nono that they lost a potential leader because his student was too selfless to mind his own damn business—and he grabbed Tsuna by the arm.

“What the _hell_ do you think you’re doing, Tsuna?” His face contorted into something similar to fear and anger, but he shook off Reborn’s hand and instead clenched his fists.

“I have to help him. You don’t understand.”

“What I don’t get is why you’re butting your business in something that obviously has nothing to do with you—”

“It does, though! He is…I need to help him.” Tsuna got up and, ignoring Reborn’s glare, ran up to them. They were just leaving the gymnasium when Tsuna grabbed one of their arms. The person who had Mukuro on a collar and chain turned back towards him.

“Please, I’m begging you. Please let them go. I’ll trade places with them, and you can do whatever you like with me, so please, _please_ let them go.”

But they had no intention of letting any of them go. The man wordlessly held up a collar and chain and lightly thrusted it in Tsuna’s direction, a non-verbal warning to stop while he was behind or else they would take him too. Reborn ran back to him again, and he kicked Tsuna in the head, watching as the Vindice leave the vicinity. He turned back to Tsuna, who has his hand on his head. Good. Maybe he knocked some sense into this kid.

“What part of _stop_ does your plebian brain _not_ understand? Do you even know who they are?” Not really stopping to hear a response, he continued. “They’re the Vindice, people who protect the mafia laws. They’re dangerous, and they’re _not_ to be messed with. If they determine someone is to be captured, _don’t_ get in their way and let them do their job. If you get caught with those other criminals, they won’t just let you wander out there. Know your place, damn it.”

Tsuna didn’t say anything to that, but he looked absolutely livid. His fists clenched and unclenched, and his face looked determined for a second, almost like the time he fought Gokudera, but then he relaxed his fists and his shoulders drooped.

“You don’t understand, Reborn,” Tsuna mumbled. He winced and lied on his back, staring at the decayed paint on the ceiling. “He just needs a chance. Just like those other two that were taken.”

“They’ll have their chance, later,” Reborn responded. He sat next to Tsuna, staring at his face. He already decided that he was going to invite Mukuro into the Vongola family; he may have been rough around the edges, but like Tsuna said, he needed a chance. He knew about how Mukuro sacrificed himself for his friends, and he knew that kind of loyalty was just what Vongola needed. Even without confronting the Vindice, Mukuro and his friends were going to be free. Well. Maybe not Mukuro. But his two friends would definitely be.

“How much later?”

“A little later. You never know, maybe he will join our family.”

But Tsuna didn’t say anything; he just laid there with his eyes closed, his shoulders hunched and his hands trembling. After a while, Reborn leaned against Tsuna’s stomach and fell asleep right next to him.

* * *

 

He felt a breath by his head. It was steady and small. It also smelled like blood.

He turned over, and Tsuna was right there, sleeping next to him soundly, a hand cushioning his head. He thought about waking up Tsuna, but thought better of it. He did just finish fighting, after all. And he fought well, too. He knew he would have been able to defeat Mukuro, but he thought he would have had to use _that_ bullet. It seems whatever pill Leon gave him was just as good if not better than the one Reborn had thought Leon would have given him.

One of the doctors came in unexpectedly and she froze when she saw that Reborn was awake.

“Ah, Reborn-san! How are you feeling? We didn’t put you in a separate bed because Sawada-san requested that you stay by his side. I hope that’s alright?”

That was a bit of a surprise to him. Tsuna wanted to be that close to him? For what reason? He was his teacher, yes, but he didn’t exactly treat him nicely. He bossed him around, yelled at him, threatened to knock him out, and a bunch of other horrible deeds that Reborn had little to no remorse about dong. And yet he still wanted Reborn to stay close to him?

Well. Tsuna always was too nice for his own good.

“That’s fine. How is he?” At that, the doctor grimaced.

“Well…it’s a bit of a long story. Would you mind coming out with me, please?”

He complied, hoping off of the bed and walking with the doctor outside of their assigned room. When the doctor didn’t really stop and instead went out to the waiting room, which, because it was a private hospital owned by Vongola, it was completely empty, Reborn’s concerns rose.

She sat down on a beige couch, right next to a wooden table that had a few refreshments and a round, ceramic obsidian bowl that was full of candy. She took a Styrofoam cup from the edge of the table and made herself a cup of coffee. She offered him some, and he took a cup, thanking her and waiting for her to start talking.

“To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I should tell you this, this kind of information should really be told to a guardian,” she started, nervously pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “But his other guardian, Sawada Iemitsu, is unavailable, and we do not know his mother’s contact information. You’re listed as his emergency contact, so this is why I’m telling you this.”

Of course Iemitsu is unavailable. He was “unavailable” for over ten years, sending the occasional card to his family if he remembered. And as for Nana…Iemitsu went out of his way not to include her into the mafia. It was no surprise they couldn’t get a hold of her.

Though. Him being listed as an emergency contact did surprise him. He figured that was probably Nono’s doing. He had to send him his gratitude when he got the chance.

“Gokudera Hayato, Yamamoto Takeshi, and Hibari Kyoya are all healed, for the most part. Their injuries were pretty bad, but we were able to heal them. Sawada Tsunayoshi also had injuries, but the injuries weren’t life-threatening, unlike the other three. But we weren’t sure if he perhaps had some internal damage, so we did a few tests on him.”

“And what happened?” She shifted, her eyes darting away from his.

“I…I don’t know how to explain it, really.”

“What do you mean? Isn’t he hurt? Does he have a disease that I should know about?”

“Well…yes and no. I brought the scans we did on his body. At first, we thought there was something wrong with the scanner itself, but we redid it several times. We had an external doctor come in and confirm our results. And well. Sawada-san should be getting extensive treatment right now, but there is literally nothing we can do to help him.”

“Okay,” Reborn prodded, “why can’t he get treatment? You still haven’t told me what’s wrong with him.”

“That’s just it, though. I can’t report and say something’s wrong, because there is nothing to report. Sawada Tsunayoshi’s condition is ‘stable’; he’s functioning perfectly, but he doesn’t have a stomach. His stomach is a hollow hole in his body, and the space where his lungs are supposed to be is hollow. Not to mention that his heart is, although in his chest, not beating. We were going to give him a transplant, but we can’t take blood, because there is no blood to take. When we tried taking his blood to see the condition of his body, we received an error, which is how we found out in the first place. It’s a miracle he’s even alive right now, because by all accounts, he’s not supposed to be right now, and with so many unknowns, we wouldn’t know the first way to heal him of his ailments.”

Reborn was shocked, as if he were doused with scaling hot water. Did Tsuna know about this? No, he couldn’t have known, he would have freaked out—

No…he did know. That kid, that’s why he vomited when he ate food. He couldn’t digest food; there was nowhere for it to go. He had to have known that something was wrong if he kept vomiting out food left and right. Why didn’t he tell anyone? _Why didn’t he tell him?_

 “Um…Reborn-san?” Reborn’s face snapped up to hers, before he stared right back down at the table.

“Can I have the scans? I need to take a look at them.”

“Oh, yes. Of course.” She handed them over to him, and he examined them.

Sure enough, his heart was there, but it was black, as if there was tar painted on the insides and outsides of it. His stomach was gone, with strange dots in its place…wait. Strange dots?

“What are those dots? The one in the area of his stomach?”

“I’m not sure, actually. We did several tests on them specifically, but they all came up as an error. However, because of the color and the shape, we are hypothesizing they are little bits of Sun Flames. They might be the only thing that’s keeping him alive, but I couldn’t tell you for sure. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Reborn examined the prints once more, and then he handed them back to the doctor, who thanked him profusely.

“So. What should I do with him? If there’s anything to even do.”

“I don’t know…I’m sorry. It seems as if he’s—although very, very hurt—in a stable and unchangeable condition, so I would say that he’s fine and you shouldn’t worry about it, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. To be honest, his condition and treatment is out of my knowledge. I’m going to refer you to Dr. Shamal; I’m hoping that he has more knowledge about his condition and could possibly do something to help him.”

She got up, ready to apologize again, but Reborn stopped her.

“Stop apologizing; you’ve done nothing wrong.”

“But…Reborn-san, you don’t understand. His condition may be stable, but because his heart isn’t functioning, he could literally die at any moment. I heard he fought against a criminal; I’m surprised that…” she trailed off, but Reborn knew what she was going to say. The slightest damage should have killed him, from what she made it sound like.

Another concern popped into his head: how long has Tsuna had this condition? Perhaps he has had this condition for a long time. Why didn’t something this important show up in the reports? Why didn’t he know beforehand, damn it. He wouldn’t have treated him as harshly.

Not that anything he did would have made his condition worse, but…

“I’m going to check on Tsuna again.” Reborn got up, and the doctor got up with him. She was still nervous, still upset. And understandably so. What doctor wants to hear that a situation is out of their control?

“Ah, okay. I’ll fax one referral to his house and one to Dr. Shamal, so he knows.”

“Alright. Thanks for letting me know.” He walked back to their room, and he saw that Tsuna was laying away from him, his back towards him. His shoulders were slumping dramatically, and Reborn felt a little irked that Tsuna honestly thought that he would fall for this.

“I know you’re awake, Tsuna. I’m pretty pissed at you right now, so unless you want me to really hurt you, I suggest you get up.”

At once, Tsuna got up from his bed, frowning a bit.

“I guess you know now?”

“What do you think?”

Tsuna didn’t say anything; he just kept on frowning. And Reborn felt his patience waning just a bit.

“I’ll tell you what. You can start from the top. Tell me exactly what you know, and I’ll decide whether or not to hurt you despite your illness.”

* * *

 

Nothing changed.

In the end, Tsuna did know about his condition, but he didn’t know when it started—though Reborn is suspecting that part is a lie; Tsuna became incredibly nervous when he told him that—and he didn’t tell anyone because he didn’t want to worry the people that cared about him.

He told Tsuna that he was going to see another doctor, and he immediately denied the treatment.

“Your mother won’t know if you don’t want her to know,” Reborn had said. Still, Tsuna refused.

“If I didn’t go to the hospital, you would have never found out,” he had retorted. “I’m perfectly fine, trust me.”

“I don’t see how I can when you don’t tell me anything.” At that, Tsuna didn’t say anything, but his face portrayed his guilt.

Well. Good. Reborn had a perverted satisfaction in seeing Tsuna wallow in guilt. After all, Reborn was one of the only—no, screw that, the _only_ one—who gave so much time and effort to him. Granted, it was mainly because it was his job, but over the months he stayed with him, he grew something akin to…care? Affection, maybe? It didn’t matter. He started to _like_ him, and he actually cared about his well-being, and if Tsuna couldn’t see that, he was blind as a damn cave cricket.

So when he found out that Tsuna was so close to death’s door, it pissed him off. He should have told him. Was Reborn so harsh on him that he can’t even confide in the person who stays with him all the time, practically twenty-four hours a day?

Right now, he was lying in bed, facing the wall. He shifted in his hammock to get a good look at his pupil. Tsuna was sleeping well, better than he ever had, and Reborn breathed out a small sigh of relief. He hadn’t slept well in weeks. Ever since a month ago, when he first dreamt about Mukuro, he always shifted in his sleep, and then he eventually got up and stared at the stars. And Reborn, slightly concerned and mostly curious, always watched him until he fell asleep.

He turned around to the wall, his eyes becoming heavy.

A second later, there was a thump by the window. Tsuna started, staring at the window.

White hair. White wings. A smile. And perhaps the answer to Reborn’s questions.

But Reborn already fell asleep.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did anyone notice when I switched from Tsunayoshi to Tsuna? :D  
> ...  
> Also, I'm not really good at fighting scenes, so please excuse the Mukuro/Tsuna fight. Also, about Mukuro. Since I won't really be explaining this in the story, I'll explain it here. Tsuna wanted to save Mukuro because he felt guilty because he killed him in a previous timeline. 
> 
> Yay for more Byakuran~ He's probably my favorite person to write. (Whoops. I hope y'all knew that?)
> 
> Also. I know my writing can be confusing. The first two parts are the first day that Tsuna and Reborn met. The third part is the fifth day that Reborn and Tsuna stayed together. The fourth part is two weeks from when they first met, and then a month and two weeks (or five weeks, in total. The time is slightly off, but that's on purpose). The sixth part, when Reborn and the others go to Kokuyo Land, is two months from when Tsuna and Reborn first met. Same with the seventh part.
> 
> Also, the reason why Reborn never confronts Tsuna on his suspicious behavior and knowledge is because:  
> 1) He doesn't quite know Tsuna yet. He knows he's not an enemy, since he is supposed to be tutoring him, but that doesn't mean he's completely good, either.
> 
> 2) He wants Tsuna to tell him the truth. Sadly, he probably won't for a very long time.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed. Going on a retreat soon, so I won't be updating for a while after this. Thanks for the comments and kudos and such; I was very excited to talk with y'all. Well...bye! >.<


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A wild Byakuran appears!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If this chapter is confusing, you most likely skipped the interlude. Please read the fifth to the seventh part for more information. Thanks ^^
> 
> Also. I was satisfied with the first part, but the second part was…eugh. I wasn’t satisfied at all. Actually, I think it sucks, but well…
> 
> Hope you enjoy regardless T^T
> 
> (Quick side note: Thanks SO much for reading, y'all. I'm almost at 5k hits, and almost at 200 kudos (seriously. 185 kudos? So so happy) and almost 50 bookmarks. I hope (beg) that you guys stick with me to the bitter end. ^^)
> 
> Also, I realize I used "timelines" and "worlds" as two different entities. I don't know why I did that, but sorry. Tsuna willingly travels through timelines (which are also worlds) at different periods of time.

_He always thought that, because Kyoko was caught that time, he wouldn’t ever be able to escape the base undetected._

_Today proved him wrong._

_Tsuna escaped the base, leaving a healthy amount of flame residue in his room so that no one would question his presence—except for Gokudera, who bunked with him—and then he all but ran out of the base. He waited for the alarm to sound, for his corroded heart to drop into his insubstantial stomach, but it never happened. Everything was as quiet as it should have been, and he made his way to the top of Namimori’s shrine. His quickened breaths slowed, and he eventually made his way to the underground shopping centre. To Millifore._

_Getting in was easy enough. The security was tight, but it was nothing he wasn’t used to. He slipped on the plain silver ring that Shouichi gave him ages ago, a ring that was brimming with mist flames, perfect for masquerading. And just like he expected, his body was camouflaged as a regular member of the Giglio Nero family. Tsuna was very glad for that. Although he didn’t hate Byakuran anymore, he sure as hell didn’t want to be a part of his family. Vongola had its own problems; he didn’t want to have Millifore’s sins on him as well._

_He was walking towards Byakuran’s room, which, although Byakuran resided in Italy, not Japan, his room was always crawling with members of the Millifore whether or not he was actually there. Judging by the fact that there were more than usual, he took that as a pretty good indication that Byakuran was probably there, perhaps doing another one of his all-nighters with a bag of melted marshmallows next to him._

_“Halt.” Tsuna turned around to meet a member of the Millifore. Judging by the pads he had on his shoulders, he was probably a distinguished member. Hopefully, Tsuna wouldn’t have to fight him. It would be such a shame if his cover was blown so easily. Well, not that someone like this man could see through his façade. Tsuna prided Shouichi and Spanner as his mechanics; their work wasn’t so shabby that some low class flame wielder like this man could see through it. Hopefully._

_“Yes, sir?”_

_“What business does a Giglio Nero member have with Byakuran-sama?”_

_“I need to report to him right away, and my leader isn’t available. Can you let me pass?”_

_The man snorted. “I don’t believe you. You scum are always up to something. How do I know you won’t try to scurry up information and send it back to your leader? I think I’ll accompany you.”_

_Honestly, Tsuna wanted to snap at him, to tell him to leave him the hell alone and let him talk to Byakuran,_ god _these Millifore were such snobs, but he only nodded and continued walking. It would be inauspicious if he refused; he would be giving this man a reason to be suspicious. And then he really would have to fight, and it’s not like he prepared a box-weapon just in case. If he asked Shouichi or Spanner to make one, Reborn would know before long, and then he would have become wary and then the questions would start rolling. He could already imagine it_ : _“Tsuna, you already have a Box weapon, why would you need another one? And it’s not even another Sky one; what’s with the Sun Box Weapon?”_

_The other members gave an apologetic glance at Tsuna, but Tsuna could have cared less. It’s not like they’re going to actually help him; they’d rather smite their own face than dare rise their head against a superior. And Tsuna couldn’t blame them, really. If this man was over them, he wouldn’t dare try to help out someone else, either. Tsuna himself would rather save his own skin and promote himself high enough that he could willingly leave from under this man’s jurisdiction._

_The obnoxious man knocked on the door meekly, but then with more force as Byakuran didn’t answer. After a good two minutes, Tsuna heard a sigh from behind the door._

_“You’re free to come in.”_

_The man straightened himself out before pressing on an ivory button at hip-level and walking inside with his head held high. Byakuran was at his desk, his head on a hand, and perusing through documents with the other, simultaneously typing something out every so often. He didn’t even look up to see who was at the door._

_“What is it that you need that you had to come straight to me and not my assistant?”_

_“Sir! This man said he needed to report something to you since his leader wasn’t available.” At the implication that he was in the presence of a Giglio Nero member, his eyes flickered up briefly before back down again. But then his eyes fluttered right back up as he stared at Tsuna. His lips quirked into something analogous to a smile before he leaned forward, his attention fully on the two of them._

_“It must have been very hard for you,” he said, amused. Then he directed his attention to the man that escorted Tsuna in. “You can go now.”_

_The Millifore member stopped. “But sir…”_

_“You don’t trust me to take care of myself? Besides, his leader wouldn’t be too happy if his underling attacked me when I’m above both of them.”_

_He started to smile, that easygoing smile that put the man at ease. After nodding, he left the two of them alone, but not without bowing once more at Byakuran. Tsuna was almost certain that the man was practically beaming because Byakuran talked to him. He felt a twinge of disgust coil inside of him._

_“Now that we’re alone, why don’t you tell me what you’re really here for, Sawada Tsunayoshi.”_ _Byakuran pushed his documents to the side, folding his hands and settled his chin on them, waiting for Tsuna to speak. Tsuna felt his mouth dry a little, feeling a little intimidated that Byakuran was staring right in his eyes, but he shook himself of the fear and pulled off the ring, pocketing it. Immediately, the mist flames were absorbed into his skin, and he sighed with relief._

_“…how did you know it was me?”_

_“How could I_ not _know it was you is the question you should be asking. It was fairly obvious, you know. Your Sky flames give you away. That toy might have covered your appearance, but not your flames. Though, you look a bit different than I remembered. I know I killed you in this timeline, but you’re not from ten years in the past, either. You look the same, but your flames aren’t the same. So tell me, when are you from?”_

_“It’s a long story, one I don’t feel like sharing. You’re right though; I’m not from this time or ten years ago. I came here to offer you a bargain.”_

_At once, Byakuran straightened, his smile widening just a tad. “Oh? What kind of bargain is it?”_

_“You still have the ability to see other worlds through the different versions of yourself, don’t you?”_

_“Yes,” Byakuran admitted, a bit surprised, “but how do you know that?”_

_“Then I’ll give you my power. Right now, I have an infinite amount of flames. And I’m willing to give you a percentage of it each world that we meet. Not you and the Sawada Tsunayoshi of that time, but_ me _, specifically.”_

_“And how will I know it’s you, Tsunayoshi-kun?”_

_“I’ll come to you just like I did today, under this exact guise. Well, until I’m able to find you ten years in the past. Then I’ll just meet you there instead. You’ll know, just like now, that I’m different.”_

_Byakuran hummed and leaned back in his chair. He seemed interested enough, which was perfect. Byakuran was one of the only people who could really help him, so if he rejected his proposal—which he hoped to god he wouldn’t—then he had to ask Yuni. But it took a lot of energy for Yuni to travel through different timelines, and so much more doing it consistently. He couldn’t ask that of her._

_“And how will I know you won’t break your promise? You_ are _the enemy, after all.”_

_“I’ll give you some of my flames now, as a promise. But if you break your promise, I’ll kill you, and keep killing you until you honor your promise.”_

_“You think you can kill me?”_

_“I know I can,” Tsuna replied. He held out his hand, producing a mixture of Sun Flames and Sky Flames, both positive charges. It would act as an amplifier to Byakuran’s current flames, and it would stabilize the slight charge difference between his and Byakuran’s._

_Seeing the flames in the palm of Tsuna’s hands, flames that were so transparent they were iridescent, Byakuran hummed again and got out of his chair, approaching Tsuna and his flames. He stared down at Tsuna with something akin to wonder and irritation. He touched the flames, expecting it to burn him, but instead it absorbed itself into his pores. He watched with fascination as the flames dissipated into his hands. Then, out of curiosity, he produced his own flames._

_They were much clearer than before._

_He turned back to Tsuna. “You realize that I could use this against you?”_

_Tsuna shrugged, letting out a little laugh. “Of course I do. But it’s not like I won’t die sooner or later, so it doesn’t matter to me one way or another. So, will you help me?”_

_Intrigued by the change in the quality of his flames, Byakuran created some more. They were even purer than the set he created previously. Satisfied that he was remarkably stronger than he was before, he agreed to Tsuna’s bargain. He technically was helping out Tsuna much more than he was getting something out of it, especially if Shouichi was on his side, but he still had access to thousands, no, millions of worlds out there. He could transfer the power to any one of them if needs be, and over each timeline he met this Tsunayoshi—and there was no doubt in his mind that he would meet him again—he would become exponentially powerful. Becoming a god of several worlds was not out of his reach if he kept this up for a long period of time._

_“Okay. What is it that you need me to do?”_

_“I need you to communicate with your other counterparts in different worlds. And I want you to find a world that differs even slightly from the majority of the other ones. I don’t care if it’s even something simple as me not having Sky Flames—the moment you see something that differs, please contact me. I know that you only have a limited amount of influence, especially since you usually only meet me in the future, but please.”_

_“Define the ‘majority’, Tsunayoshi-kun.”_

_“I guess something that is a ‘majority’ would be your superiority and dictatorship. It’s something that Irie-san had to plan for—though I’m sure that you knew that from before—and it’s the reason why I’m here, for the most part. If there’s a world where Irie-san doesn’t exist or a world where you meet me beforehand—_ something that could change the future, anything, Byakuran _—then please contact me as soon as you can in this time. I don’t care if you kidnap me; just get me to you. And then, if you can, please pinpoint the direction of that world from the one I’ll be in.”_

_“So another words, you want an anomaly.” The white-haired man frowned. “I can find these worlds for you, though I feel like the reward I’m receiving is too little for the work I’m doing.”_

_Tsuna huffed. “Fine, if you want more flames, I’ll give you more. Just—”_

_“I was teasing. It’s fine, don’t give me anymore. These flames are more than enough for the price. Really, I get much more out of this bargain than you do.”_

* * *

 

Tsuna heard a thump by the window, and he all but jumped out of his skin. He then looked towards the window and saw _him_.

White hair. White wings. White garments.                                                                                                                                                                 

“Byakuran,” Tsuna hissed, slightly irritated, “I _thought_ I told you not to come into my room unannounced like this.”

He chuckled, amused by Tsuna’s antics. “Oh, but Tsunayoshi-kun, the Arcobalerno is sleeping. What do you have to worry about?”

“And what if he wakes up? Then what?”

“Then he finds out. And then you’ll have a lot of explaining to do, since technically you’re not supposed to know me. The Millifore family has nothing to do with the Vongola family, other than the fact that we each hold a part of the Tri-Ni-Set needed to stabilize the world.”

“You speak as if this doesn’t concern you.”

“Ah, you figured it out! It _doesn’t_ have anything to do with me.” He sauntered along the creaky wooden floor, side-stepped the child, sat on the bed, patted the space next to him. With a benevolent—and Tsuna had to confess, a rather disarming—smile, Byakuran gestured for Tsuna to sit down. He obliged, sitting down next to the white-haired man and frowned at him. Byakuran’s smile only widened.

“You’re horrible, you know that.”

“…That’s nothing we both don’t know, Tsunayoshi-kun.” The older man laughed at Tsuna’s sour expression.

Tsuna huffed, but then he calmed down, threading his fingers in betwixt themselves, his hands sliding along each other noisily from the clamminess from his palms.

“Did…you find anything?”

“I sure did. It’s a bit murky; I have the connection to that counterpart of mine, but it is a few ways away from here. So I hope you don’t mind that I don’t give you a straight answer right away. Though, finding an anomaly is a rather generalized statement. What you mean to ask is if it’s a world that’ll cater to your needs. To which, the answer would be yes. So as long as you’re careful with this world. Try not to make the same mistakes. Though you don’t have to worry too much about that. I’ll help you with that.”

Tsuna was silent for a moment, taking a deep breath in and exhaling softly. But then he nodded, gazing up at Byakuran. “That’s more than enough; you don’t have to do anymore for me.”

He created flames like he did that first time that they met, and just like then, his flames were pure, transparent, and almost iridescent. He held them out in front of Byakuran, getting closer and closer until they touched Byakuran’s arm, absorbing into his body like water in paper.

“Should you really be giving me your flames when they’re your only means of survival?”

“That is none of your concern,” Tsuna muttered. Then, a bit louder, “Just take it. It’s part of the bargain.”

“No, I think I’ve accumulated more than enough of your flames.” He pushed Tsuna’s hand away, causing the flames to seep back into Tsuna’s palm, and then he created his own flames. They were almost as pure as Tsuna’s—most likely due to timelines and timelines of taking the boy’s life source away from him—and he held it out before Tsuna, a clear invitation to take it. But Tsuna refused, pushing his flames away like how Byakuran did to him.

“I don’t need it. Besides, I don’t like breaking promises.”

“Is it breaking a promise when I’m willingly giving you back your own flames?” He tried again, creating even more flames and pushing them directly onto Tsuna’s skin. But Tsuna waved them off, and eventually it dissipated into thin air.

“It’s fine, really.”

“You just don’t want to owe me is what this is. Well, I’ll tell you what, Tsunayoshi-kun. You owe me nothing from now on. And you _will_ take these flames I’m offering to you. Your complexion is getting worse lately, and don’t even try to hide the fact that your stomach dissipated this timeline. Your heart is malfunctioning, and you don’t have any lungs to speak of. And don’t lie to me; I can see inside of your body, as you should already know oh so well.”

The moment that Tsuna opened his mouth to speak, Byakuran conjured up the purest flames that he had ever seen, and pushing it right onto his chest, inserted them right onto Tsuna’s soul. Tsuna tried to move but he found that he couldn’t; the shackles that he had taught to Byakuran so many timelines ago _—“It’s just replacing the energy needed to make flames and solidifying it; that’s all”_ —is being used against him right now, and Tsuna found a sort of irony with this whole situation. Or perhaps, maybe not irony, but a twisted sense of humor. He tried again to lean back, but he knew better than anyone that he would not be released until Byakuran would have it for him to be released, and he gave in, his shoulders slumping and his eyes closing, accepting the flames that the older man dripped into his soul. He could feel the relief, the warmth from the flames that were once his, along with Byakuran’s flames, a gentle touch of something soothing, perhaps even cathartic, easing the pain that was inside of his body, and trying desperately to enhance the Sun Flames that Leon gave him.

“I feel like you can last a bit longer now,” Byakuran said as he leaned back. He surveyed Tsuna’s body, his face, his soul, and coming to a conclusion he nodded to himself, pleased with the work that he had done. “Don’t bother thank me; there is nothing to thank me for yet. Just. Do me a favor, Tsunayoshi-kun?”

Tsuna stared at him, still a bit lost because of the pleasure that he just felt. “…what?”

“Try to survive until I find out more about this world. It’s a bit of an anomaly even in the world of anomalies that I have found in the past, so I really want this to be your last world. But that’s up to you, Tsunayoshi-kun, to survive until I can find the proper coordinates for it so you can transfer yourself into it. And, of course, to actually _live_ to properly experience the whole timeline.”

 “…that’s not a favor…”

“Of course it is,” the white-haired man laughed, smoothing down Tsuna’s unruly hair. “If you were to die, the energy that I could possibly use to reign over another world that I’m electing to give to you would go to waste. And I don’t want that. So stay alive for me, okay, Tsunayoshi-kun?”

And somehow, Tsuna knew that Byakuran was using it as an excuse—his hunger for power, his hunger for dominance—to keep Tsuna alive. He knew that Tsuna was very trigger-happy, in the fact that he was accident prune, in the fact that he could die at literally any moment because of the curse, and in the fact that _he_ was after him and would have no choice but to give up his life should the timeline not line up the way _he_ wants it to. That, more than anything else that Byakuran has done for him—including giving him back life, _time_ specifically—touched Tsuna to dumbness he simply nodded mutely. Byakuran smiled, happy that Tsuna wasn’t fighting him on it, and got up.

“Well. Then I’ll tell you within a few days. It was nice seeing you again, Tsunayoshi-kun.” He extended his wings, fully ready to fly out of Tsuna’s room, when the brunette called out to him.

“W-wait, Byakuran-san!” He stopped in his tracks, and then he turned around, his wings still fully extended for departure.

“What is it?” Tsuna shuffled towards him, his head bent down. He felt a beat of nervousness as he came closer, almost in arm’s length of him. All of these timelines, no matter how nice Byakuran treated him—and over the years, Byakuran _has_ treated him kindly—he had never really thanked him, never really touched him, never even blinked twice his way. He always viewed their relationship as nothing but a give and take, nothing more than a working transaction, and he figured that would never change. But today, tonight, Byakuran touched his heart more than he thought. He gave him life, he promised he wouldn’t owe anything to him—to his enemy, to the one person that could and would continually stop him from being a ruler of a new world (though really, there would always be a world he could control, so as long that Tsuna was not in that world)—and he promised to keep helping him despite all of this. He took a deep breath.

And then he wrapped his arms around Byakuran’s midsection.

“Thank you,” he mumbled into his chest, digging his head even deeper into Byakuran’s midsection. “You don’t have to do this, but you did. So…”

Byakuran hesitated, and then he returned the gesture. Of all of the things that he thought Tsuna would do, this was not one of them. But then again, Tsuna was practically screaming out gratitude. He was practically crying from appreciation. Byakuran cupped the back of Tsuna’s head, which pressed his face deeper into his chest, and ran his fingers through Tsuna’s toffee hair. He was so tempted, so, _so_ tempted to grab the child and, still in the embrace, tilt his head ever so slightly and—

—But he wouldn’t do that to him. Not when he knew what he knew. Not when he saw how much this child suffered throughout the five years he was placed under this curse. Not when he knew whose affections, no, _attention_ he was seeking. Not when he refused to even tell that man the truth.

Not when Tsuna trusted him so.

“You don’t need to thank me,” Byakuran said instead, continuing to run his fingers through the child’s messy hair. He started to flatten it down a bit, but it simply bounced right against his palm. “I thought I told you that earlier. Don’t thank me until you’re fully healed and you’re in a stable world. In a world where you can receive your ‘happy ending’, so to speak.” He released Tsuna and watched as Tsuna sniffed a few times before pulling himself back together.

“I’ll definitely try, Byakuran-san.” He rubbed his eyes until they were free from his tears, and then he looked back up at his friend. Yeah, he was definitely his friend. Perhaps after the first fifty times, Byakuran’s heart warmed up to him. But Tsuna refused to warm up to him the same way. After all, Byakuran had killed him. He’d killed everyone Tsuna knew in one timeline or another. How could he possibly like him back?

But he did. Slowly, Byakuran grew on him. Perhaps it was those stupid worlds where he would pop up unannounced, similar to this one, or perhaps it was those worlds that Byakuran would allow Tsuna to kill him, to take his aggression out on him, or perhaps…

…perhaps it was that world that Byakuran erased his memory and allowed him a moment of happiness. It hadn’t lasted long, but god. He could honestly say that was one of the happiest times of his life, including his original timeline, where he died—what Byakuran considers anyhow—a dog’s death. He never thanked Byakuran for that time either, even when Tsuna regained his memories after he died.

He stared into Byakuran’s light lavender eyes, trying to convey his renewed determination, the determination that _he_ planted inside of Tsuna, along with the renewed time that Byakuran granted to him. To have an enemy-turned-friend do this for him, despite the fact that Byakuran could possibly die in the future by his hands, touched him greatly.

“I won’t waste the life you gave me.”

“Good. I don’t like investing in things that are a waste of my resources.” He smiled once more, gave a short wave to Tsuna, and, without waiting for a response from Tsuna, flew away. Tsuna watched after his fading form until Byakuran became so small that he couldn’t see him anymore.

After, he shuffled back to his bed, feeling much lighter than before. He wasn’t sure if that was due to the new life in his chest, or because of Byakuran’s kindness. A moment of shifting and turning later, he raised the covers to his chest.

And feeling the relief stronger than even his curse, for the first time, he slept peacefully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So quick explanation (or re-cap): Tsuna has a curse where he dies prematurely before his assigned time (technically even before the age of TYL arc, which is 22 or so). He realizes that he can't fix this problem alone, and knowing that Byakuran and Yuni have access to other timelines, asks Byakuran to help him find a timeline that differs from the "majority". As Byakuran is still his enemy, he knows that Byakuran will not help him unless there is something in it for him, which is why he offers him his flames. Seeing his kickass flames, Byakuran agrees. 
> 
> Over time, the two become something similar to friends, and Byakuran finds out that Tsuna's flames are essential for his survival. Not wanting to give up the deal, Byakuran instead does other acts of kindness for Tsuna, but Tsuna doesn't reciprocate, mainly because he feels as if he shouldn't befriend his killer and his friends' murderer. Unfortunately, he still does. Which leads us to the end of this chapter, where Byakuran willingly gives a good percentage of the flames Tsuna once gave to him along with some of his own. 
> 
> Hope nothing is confusing. Everything will make sense in a few chapters, but if you're still confused, please don't hesitate to send me a PM or a review; I'll answer as soon as I can. ^^
> 
> Also, next chapter will have R27. Like actual R27. So be excited~~~


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unexpected events occur, resulting in a renewal of Tsuna’s hope for the future. Additionally, Tsuna’s old feelings bloom again when Bianchi comes to see Reborn. He tries to forget it, but to no avail.
> 
> (Basically, a filler chapter that doesn't move the plot at all, but gives you a bit of insight of Tsuna's feelings for Reborn. Also, Bianchi. She should probably be a warning onto herself. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one who was irritated with her until the Future Arc.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, all. First, let me apologize for the very late update. I actually wanted to update on Christmas, but then I re-read my chapter and realized it was mostly exposition, which sucks big time. As a result, I ended up scrapping 6.5k of work. Soo I had to re-write it again. Thus, this chapter. Hope you enjoy.
> 
> Also. I’ve been writing this story for almost five years. I originally started this story in 2013, and it’s going on 2018, to which I’ve only done seven (now eight) chapters out of twenty, which was twenty-two before. I have many New Year resolutions, but one of them is to finish the rest of this story in the next three months. I know I’ve probably lost some readers by now—and I really apologize for taking so long (I know how it feels to wait for a story that you’re reading to come out; it sucks)—but for the readers still remaining, I promise that I’ll finish in the next three months. Thank you for sticking with me for long.
> 
> Edit: Made a few changes after scanning over this chapter again. Sigh. I hope the next chapter will be better.

Tsuna smelled spoiled milk and rotten bananas before he even opened his eyes. He turned over, hoping to bury himself into the blanket to hopefully muffle the scent into the blankets, but to no avail. The smell only increased in intensity, and with each turn, a whiff smacked him in the face and rendered him conscious. Finally giving up on the fog of sleep that hovered over him, he removed the blankets from his head, fully intending on dumping whatever was causing that awful scent.

But when he did, he came face-to-face with a plate of squirming fruits and the fierce stare of a woman that he knew too well.

 _Bianchi_.

He honestly didn’t know what to say. He was expecting Lambo, or Reborn, or his mother—sometimes, her cooking went a little _too_ south—but he wasn’t expecting her. There were so many times that he hadn’t seen her, and even then, it wasn’t so soon. And considering the reason why she was most likely here, he really didn’t want to see her right now.

“Uh…”

“You must be Vongola the Tenth, aren’t you?” She smiled graciously, as if she were honestly pleased to see him, but he knew all too well that she was anything but. Tsuna smiled back at her, albeit shaky.

“W-what are you doing in my house?”

She sat down on the bed next to her poison dish and leaned forward, her breath touching his nose. “Didn’t you hear? I’m going to be living here with you now. Reborn’s going to be teaching you to become a mafia boss, right? I’m here to help.”

He leaned back, feeling something akin to nausea swell in his stomach. “I was never told of this!”

“Oh, really? I heard your mother and Reborn talking about it yesterday. She was all too glad to let me stay over and help cook the meals. So I volunteered to cook for you. You should eat that quickly, because you’re going to be late.”

Tsuna stared at the writhing salad, the once maroon strawberries gone blue—how that was even possible, Tsuna barely understood to this day—and the bananas gone brown and black, with maggots wiggling between the gaps of each fruit. He wanted to chuck it out of the window, but he knew that if he failed to eat this one in the name of safety, Bianchi would continue to harass him until she felt satisfied or, at the very least, until she met Adult Lambo. But who knows when that would be, and even if she did, he didn’t want to speed up the process. Lambo _was_ a child, after all.

…not to mention that as much as he knew how dangerous it was, he didn’t really want to offend her.

He scooped up a pile of strawberry, banana, and blueberry mush and shoved it into his mouth, disregarding the abominable taste that settled on his tongue, and swallowed it, resisting the urge to use his Sun flames to break it down until it was pure energy. Instead, he ate the entire dish, allowing the poison to seep into the middle of his body, and took all of his bodily restrictions off—his hole of a stomach, his nonexistent blood stream, everything—and waited for his body to accept the charge difference between her flame and his.

And then he started coughing.

At first, it was a mild cough, similar to when he had fought Mukuro and had pushed too hard, but then he couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t like he had lungs to breathe with from before—his internal organs were discombobulated and torn into microscopic pieces, none of which could be used at all—but he was always able to simulate the feeling of breathing with his flames. He breathed with his soul, not with his body. But now that his soul was being attacked by Bianchi’s flames, he couldn’t breathe.

Bianchi was pleased with herself at first, but then when he continued coughing instead of doubling over in pain, she became concerned. She had planned on killing him, yes, but this dosage wasn’t supposed to be lethal. At most, it was supposed to make him nauseated, causing him to vomit for the next few hours, really for a warning than anything else, to hopefully get Reborn to reconsider training Tsuna. She had heard that Tsunayoshi was a no-good, cowardly, pathetic person with no redemption, and she had felt that Tsuna was a waste of his time. Why should Reborn waste his time on Tsuna when he could be fighting rival families with her? If Tsuna fell ill for a while, she knew that Reborn would eventually see it useless and give up on him. If this time hadn’t worked, then she would have attempted to kill him. But as she watched Tsuna cough up the food that poisoned him in the first place, she felt a strange sense of heaviness in her heart.

“I…I’m going to get Reborn.”

She leapt from the bed and pushed his bedroom door open, too much in a rush to push it back and give Tsuna an inkling of privacy. It was only moments after when Reborn, Nana, and Bianchi had returned, with a warm compress and pills. Nana leaned down on the bed, pushing two white pills and a damp cloth at Tsuna’s face.

“Tsu-kun, you need to take these to feel better. Here, open your mouth.”

Nana came closer, trying to push the pills into Tsuna’s mouth, but he shook his head, coughing all the while. She frowned, pulling back from him. For the first time in ages, she felt something akin to desperation, not because her son was sick, but because she couldn’t do anything to help his sickness. She wondered how much money Iemitsu left for her in the bank and if it would be enough to cover Tsuna’s hospital bills.

“Do…do you think we should take him to the hospital? I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this sick before.”

“No, don’t worry about this, mama,” Reborn replied, jumping on her shoulder and gently prying the pills and cloth from her hands. “How about you call the school and tell them that Tsuna will be out sick today. Bianchi and I will take care of him.”

“But…”

Bianchi quickly came over to Nana and held her hands. “Let us take care of him, please. It was my fault he ended up like this. I know I’m a terrible cook, but I still let him eat it anyhow. Let me take responsibility.”

Seeing her earnestness, Nana acquiesced, nodding before stepping out of Tsuna’s room, closing the door behind her. When she had left, Reborn had turned to Bianchi.

“You poisoned him?”

“Only because I don’t think that you should have to deal with him, Reborn. After we bring him back to a stable state, why don’t we partner back up again? Sawada-kun won’t be able to do anything for a while.”

Reborn didn’t respond, instead opting to stare at Tsuna, his mind going a thousand miles per minute. Tsuna was still coughing, clutching at his chest and heaving, with saliva pooling out of his mouth. He looked pale, weak, and overall just _awful_ , and Reborn couldn’t do a damn thing about it. Had Tsuna had a normal body like most human beings, simple stomach medicine and ample amounts of sleep would be enough to bring Tsuna back to recovery, but since he didn’t have any internal organs of use…

“We’ll revisit that later. Although whether or not Tsuna makes it alive greatly affects my decision. If he dies because of this…then consider our partnership done for now. I will not have Nono’s wrath on my head because of you.”

Bianchi bristled slightly, her irritation overpowering her guilt. “Reborn, don’t tell me that you actually _like_ this kid? He’s useless! Why should you have to waste your time on him when you could be doing more important things? Don’t you remember when we used to work together? We were perfect, Reborn, _perfect_. We could—”

“I told you,” he cut her off, “we’ll talk about this later. If you’re not going to clean up the mess that you made, then leave me for a bit. I’ll figure out how to save this kid on my own.”

She stood there for a moment, and then asked, “What should I do?”

Reborn felt his irritation towards Bianchi melt a bit. To be honest, he knew exactly why she came to visit when she did, and if he were fair, he would admit that partnering with Bianchi wasn’t all too bad. Their dates were pretty pleasant, too. But he was given a job, now, and he wasn’t going to jeopardize his job because of a woman he liked a bit. “Well, Tsuna isn’t your average human being, no matter what others tell you. So medicine won’t work with him. Just heat up some water, as hot as you can stand it, and bring another cloth along with a towel. And bring me a jar, I want to try something out.”

She nodded and rushed to get what he asked, slamming the door harshly behind her. As soon as she left, Tsuna’s coughing briefly stopped. He tugged on Reborn’s hat, and immediately did Reborn turn to him.

“You really are a handful, you know that? How did you not think that her food would make you sick, Tsuna? The smell of rotten food is so strong here, not to mention that you can’t even eat in the first place. Why on earth did you do that?”

Tsuna huffed a little breathlessly, but he immediately went back into a coughing fit. Finally, he swallowed and quickly said, “I thought…that she would be offended if I….if I…if I didn’t eat it. So.”

Reborn was about to answer him when Bianchi rushed back with a bucket of water, a towel, and a short and wide glass jar. She placed the towel and the bucket on the floor, took the cloth that laid on the floor, and placed it into the bucket, squeezing every so often until it was moist enough. Reborn took the jar that she had placed on the floor and opened it, inserting one hand inside. In seconds, a flame was dancing on the edge of his fingertips, right on the bottom of the jar, and when he had accumulated enough flames, he pulled out his hand and closed the jar.

“What are you doing?”

“Experimenting. Is the cloth ready?”

“…yes.”

“Okay, good. Then pass it to me.” Bianchi passed it to him, their fingers touching momentarily, before Reborn took the still steaming cloth and, after opening the lid, dumped the entire cloth inside. After a second later, he reopened it, pulling out the cloth. It was still damp, but no longer dripping with water. Instead, it was glowing with his flames. He jumped on Tsuna’s shoulder and placed it on the back of his neck, and almost immediately did the coughing cease. Tsuna looked at Reborn with wonder.

“How did you think to do that?”

“Just a lucky guess. You seem to be pretty compatible with sun flames. So, how do you feel?”

“I...ah. I don’t know. I feel the same as always. I’m not suffocating anymore. Thank you, Reborn.”

Reborn stared in his eyes before jumping off of his shoulder. “Don’t make me worry for nothing, No-Good Tsuna. Are you okay to go to school?”

Tsuna laughed a little shakily, still wheezing a bit. “Since when have you ever asked me about how I feel? You must have been pretty worried.”

“I’ll smack you. Since the three of us are here anyhow, let me introduce you. This is Bianchi. She’s going to be living with us for a while.”

Tsuna didn’t say anything, but his face must have showed it all. “She won’t be doing that anymore to you, right, Bianchi?”

“…I can’t convince you, can I, Reborn?”

“I never said that we wouldn’t partner up ever again, did I?”

When Bianchi’s eyes lit up in happiness, Tsuna felt something in his chest—despite nothing being there to cause it—tighten painfully. He knew exactly what this meant: she was going to fawn all over Reborn every godforsaken second of the day, and every time he would see Reborn, Bianchi would be there with him, giving him those disgusting doe eyes of a young woman in love. Well, he knew that half of it was bitterness, and god he needed to squash these feelings, but he couldn’t help it.

After all, Reborn wasn’t his anymore, was he?

“She just finished poisoning me! You’re seriously going to keep her here?! What if she poisons mom?”

“You’re the only one she’s after. And since she already saw how her poison affects you, she won’t be trying that again.”

“What if she does? Then what?”

“I won’t try it again,” Bianchi said. “Anything that makes Reborn unhappy, I won’t do. So I won’t poison you.”

Tsuna didn’t really have a chance to argue; Gokudera and Yamamoto came storming in his room, obviously because of the news of his sickness. But when Gokudera saw who was next to him, he immediately fainted from the shock.

For the remaining of the day, Tsuna was too busy taking care of Gokudera to really pay attention to Bianchi. But even though he didn’t pay attention to the two of them, his mind was on them the entire time.

* * *

 

When Tsuna woke up the next day, he felt a sense of unease claw its way into the pit of his body. He looked to his right, and sure enough, Bianchi was there, staring at him like she had the day before. She obviously still didn’t approve of him, but she didn’t want to make it obvious. Had this been his original timeline, he would have felt unnerved by her staring, intimidated, perhaps scared enough to freak out. But now? Now he was irritated _himself_. He never liked it when Bianchi was there, not because she was malicious or because he didn’t like her, because she really was kind, but because of her connection to Reborn. She was always so obvious about her feelings for him. Even when, in one timeline, he openly mocked her for having feelings for an infant, going as far as calling her a pedophile and a creep (was he much better? Granted, he fell for Reborn when he saw his true form when he realized who he really was, but after that timeline, despite being in an infant’s form, his feelings for Reborn never really faded; they simply became dormant), she was humiliated, but she tried that much harder to show her affection and to justify her actions.

But in this timeline, he wasn’t going to do that. He hated that those two were close, but he didn’t know their circumstances in this timeline. And judging by Reborn’s tone yesterday, Tsuna knew that somewhere in his heart, Reborn felt something for her. He wasn’t going to risk Reborn disliking him and taking it out on him every chance that he got.

So instead, he opted for a vigilant greeting. “G-good morning, Bianchi.”

“Good morning, Sawada-san.”

“Tsuna is fine,” Tsuna corrected her as he sat up. “I uh, actually prefer to be called Tsuna. Did you come to wake me up?”

“I did. Reborn and your mother is eating downstairs. You’re going to be late if you don’t get up now.” After, she just got up and left his room.

When he joined them at the dining room table, Reborn and Bianchi were, predictably enough, sitting next to each other. Bianchi was constantly feeding Reborn bits of food, and Reborn didn’t complain or decline it or anything.

Tsuna resisted the urge to break his chopsticks.

When Reborn was occupied with Bianchi, he sprinkled a little bit of Sun flames on his food and wolfed it down, not even waiting for his mother to look up before dumping his dishes in the sink and running out of the door, his bag in hand. He was sufficiently early enough that he didn’t need to run, but he wanted to be far enough from Reborn and Bianchi that it would take Reborn a while to catch up to him.

But he was so busy running that he didn’t look to see who was in front of him, and ended up bumping someone head-on. Both he and the person collided, their foreheads smacking painfully before then both of them landed on the floor because of the impact. Tsuna immediately got up and brushed his backpack, but then rushed to help the other person up, his instincts kicking in.

“I’m sorry, are you okay?”

“Ah, I’m fine. I should be the one to apologize,” the person replied, rubbing their forehead before looking up.

When he did, Tsuna’s eyes widened, and before he could stop himself, he blurted, “Basil?”

Basil automatically stiffened, but then relaxed when he saw who was in front of him. “Ah…do I know you?”

Immediately, Tsuna backtracked, realizing his mistake. “Ah, I…ah. No, I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re right, I am Basil. But I’m almost certain we haven’t met before. I apologize for my previous statement; I actually do know of you, Master Sawada. I’m surprised you know of _me_ though.”

“Ah…well. I just…why are you here?”

Now it was Basil’s turn to stop and think, obviously not intending on telling Tsuna his business but not wanting to be rude about it. “I’ve come to meet someone. I’m afraid that I’ve gotten a bit lost, since I misplaced my map. Could you perhaps point me in the direction of the Namimori Shrine?”

“Ah, sure. It’s that way.”

“Thank you, Master Sawada. Well then, I suppose I shall see you again someday.” He smiled at Tsuna and waved, and hesitantly, Tsuna waved back. When Basil walked away, he continued to run to school, feeling a lot lighter than he had just a few moments ago. Reborn and Bianchi were the farthest things from Tsuna’s mind; now he was wondering how his future would change because of this. All of the timelines he had went through, despite their subtle differences, weren’t much different than his own. Sometimes, Reborn and the others weren’t involved with the mafia; they were police officers, or high-ranking military officials, or, in one bizarre timeline, aliens from another planet. But the core attributes, for the most part, stayed the same. He almost always met Reborn first, and then Yamamoto and Gokudera, and so forth and so forth. A world like this where he met someone outside of sequence was rare, and it meant that anything was possible. Anything. Maybe even being freed from this everlasting curse.

…maybe he was getting ahead of himself a bit.

When he was daydreaming in class—he had no intentions on listening to what Nakamura had to say, and it wasn’t as if listening would change anything anyhow—he only then realized the ramifications of what he did just hours prior. By acknowledging who Basil was—like an old friend, like someone who he hadn’t seen in a long time—he made it seem as if he knew him, when in reality they never met before, at least, not in this world. He wondered if Basil would tell Nono, if he would tell that useless sperm donor known as his father, or if he would keep it to himself. Considering he was like the son that Iemitsu never had—oops, that’s right, he _does_ have one, a son that he doesn’t give a shit about, unless if it’s to inherit the Vongola name—he probably would mention it, even in passing. The more that Tsuna thought about it was the more that he grew concerned. What excuse could he give to his father and the other members of CEDEF that would fuse their curiosity? Implying that his Hyper Intuition is what caused it would explain why he would seem familiar, but wouldn’t explain Tsuna’s initial reaction to him. Did he just mess up everything that he worked towards?

No. No one else was there, and even if Basil told his father, he could claim innocence. Simply claiming that he heard about him before from Reborn and was surprised to see him again would be more than enough for that man. As far as his father knew, he was too honest too lie, and too stupid to pretend. So as long as everyone had that perception of him, he would be fine.

When class ended, he immediately grabbed his backpack and darted to the exit. If he were to be perfectly honest, he didn’t want to deal with Gokudera and Yamamoto. Yesterday was more than enough; the entire time, Gokudera was bellyaching in his ear about Bianchi, and Yamamoto was laughing a bit too loudly. He knew that considering the circumstances, they had every right to act like that, but it didn’t mean that he enjoyed it. After forcing his body to accept Bianchi’s poison—because normally, poison like that would have absolutely no effect on him—he felt sick the entire day, even after Reborn used his flames to heal him. He didn’t feel sick now, but his body was extra sensitive due to Bianchi’s flames. When he bumped into Basil, he got a massive headache that didn’t dissipate until he used his Sun flames to soothe the ache. He didn’t want to get another headache because of those two. The more stress he could avoid, the better.

Unfortunately, he went from the frying pan into the fire.

“I’m home,” Tsuna called out, sliding his feet from his sneakers and slipping on his household slippers. He could hear a clamor of noise a few rooms away from him before his mother rushed out from the kitchen, wiped her hands on her apron, and greeted him with that gentle smile of hers. She hugged him, rubbing his back, and feeling slightly warm inside, he returned the gesture.

“Welcome home, Tsu-kun,” she said when she released him. “I’m almost done with the dinner. How about you call Bianchi-chan and Reborn-chan for dinner, and then you can tell me about your day?”

Tsuna made a noise of recognition before making his way into the house, looking for Reborn and Bianchi. Not wanting to bother looking all over the house for them, he tracked their auras inside of the house, finding out that they were in his room, on his bed. He opened his door, fully prepared to tell Reborn off for sleeping in his bed without his permission, when he registered what he was looking at.

Bianchi was laying on his bed, curled into a crescent shape, feeding grapes— _grapes_ , how intimate was that?—to Reborn, who was leaning on her stomach, fully pleased and ready to sleep. Tsuna wasn’t sure what he wanted to do first: grab the bowl of grapes and Reborn and defenestrate them both in one shot, or yell at Bianchi for lying on his bed. He opted to do neither, clenching his hands so tightly that he felt his nails embed themselves into the second and third layer of his skin and said, “Mom is calling you for dinner. When you’re coming down, take that bowl of grapes with you. I don’t want food in my bed.”

“We’ll be down in a bit,” Reborn replied, still lying on her stomach. “So wait for us downstairs.”

“You do realize this is _my_ room, right? You’re the one that needs to leave,” Tsuna retorted sharply.

“And I’m your teacher. So whatever is yours is mine, and whatever is mine is mine,” Reborn responded just as sharply. And then, sitting up a bit, asked, “Why are you so offended that we’re on your bed? I’m on your bed all the time and you never have a problem with it. What, are you _jealous_? If you can manage to grow a pair and ask Kyoko out, then maybe you would get pampered just as much.”

“I’m not jealous,” Tsuna hissed. “I don’t like it when strangers are lying and eating on my bed like it’s theirs. And I don’t want Kyoko-chan to pamper me; she shouldn’t have to. Now, can you two _please_ get off of my bed?”

Reborn frowned and leaned back on Bianchi, acting as if Tsuna hadn’t said a word. Of course, this did nothing to conciliate Tsuna’s increasing temper. He didn’t even know why he was so—okay, of course he did. Just because Reborn was a child in this world didn’t mean that their past relationship was any less real. Especially considering the fact that Reborn used to be just as possessive, if not more, than when Tsuna was his student. What was Tsuna’s was Reborn’s, what was Reborn’s was Reborn’s, and as a result, Tsuna himself was Reborn’s, body, heart, and soul. And back then, Tsuna hadn’t minded. Because just like he was Reborn’s, Reborn exclusively belonged to him. Not Bianchi. Not those other women that clung onto him. Just Tsuna alone. But after timelines and timelines of his relationship with Reborn staying stagnant, Tsuna’s feelings for him slowly became dormant. After all, what was the sense of loving someone that not only didn’t see him that way, but didn’t even remember the relationship to begin with?

But for some reason, when it came to Bianchi, he never could keep those feelings dormant. That flare of possession always rose its ugly head. If they were together, he would always interrupt them. If she hugged Reborn, then Tsuna would find some excuse to bump into them. If they were alone, then he would send people to bother them. If she sent gifts to him, he always burned them. And without any proof that it was him, they could never accuse him.

“ _Reborn_! Don’t ignore me!”

Tsuna stalked up to Reborn, fully ready to grab him, when he stopped cold in his tracks. What was he doing, getting so angry like this? Yes, Reborn may have had a relationship with him, several relationships with him in fact, but that didn’t change the fact that he didn’t belong to him. Reborn wasn’t his, so he had no right to dictate who Reborn should or should not become intimate with, and what he should and should not do. Instead, Tsuna slowly calmed himself and turned around, left the room without another word, ignoring the eyes that were boring into his back.

A few hours later, after they ate, Tsuna made his way into his room and laid on his bed, staring into his ceiling. He was beginning to drift off to sleep when he heard the door open and close.

“Want me to help you get with Kyoko?”

“I don’t need it,” Tsuna mumbled, turning over so he wouldn’t have to look at his teacher.

“I won’t tease you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“No, I’m just not interested, Reborn. I’m not interested in Kyoko-chan anymore.”

Reborn jumped on the bed, lying on Tsuna’s back. “Since when?”

“Since…I don’t know, for a while, I guess. She’s a really cute girl, and she’s kind, but…I’m just not interested.”

“Because of Bianchi?”

“…” Tsuna didn’t answer, because technically Reborn was right. Bianchi was what ignited his past feelings for Reborn, time and time again. But he wouldn’t tell that to Reborn. That was none of his business, at least, not anymore.

“I can help you get with her, if you like her so much.”

“…she likes you, Reborn. I don’t want to get in the way of that.”

“You seemed pretty upset earlier, for someone who ‘doesn’t want to get in the way of that.’”

“…I just don’t like people eating on my bed.”

Reborn stifled a laugh. “Keep telling yourself that.”

Tsuna had started to fall asleep again when Reborn said, “That’s right. I heard something a little strange today. I was meeting up with an old friend of mine when they told me something interesting. So, I have a question for you.”

Still on his way to unconsciousness, Tsuna grunted a noise of acknowledgement, shifting slightly so Reborn could get more comfortable. “What is it?”

Reborn accepted the extra space, using Tsuna's back as a resting post. At first, he didn't say anything. He was debating something in the back of his mind, but a few moments passed and he made a decision.

“So, how do you know Basil?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, Happy New Years! I hope you enjoyed your holidays and have made some NY resolutions. (Have you? I have about three in mind, one of which I stated above haha…) Second, I decided that writing an outline kind of hinders my progress. For some stories that have a simple and easy plot, writing an outline is easier (I also noticed that when I title chapters, it’s easier to write summaries for them), but since I can’t seem to stick to my outline, I decided to freelance. So please be sure to tell me if I’m confusing you or if something seems amiss. 
> 
> I’m planning to release three-five chapters this month, if I can. We are getting to the middle of the story, where you will soon understand everything. 
> 
> Thanks for reading, and hope to see you guys again soon.
> 
> (Also, I made it pretty obvious that Tsuna was going to get busted with that Basil thing, didn't I? XD)


	9. One's Stipulation causes Another's Capitulation (I)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Although Tsuna is doing everything in his power to keep it a secret, Reborn is slowly learning the truth about him. Part I of III.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next three chapters will pretty much answer most of your questions you may have had, with the last chapter being literally nothing but descriptive exposition. Regardless, hope you enjoy, and as always, if you’re confused, do tell me so I can explain it to you. I try to be flowery and detailed, but really, I’m probably one of the most disoriented fanfic writers out there. I might think I’m making sense, but…anyways. Hope you enjoy. XD
> 
> Also, fun fact: Basil’s speech patterns is on purpose, mainly because I’m too damn lazy to research Shakespearian literature just to do a poor imitation of it. No thanks. I’d rather not butcher up something so important like that.

Originally, Reborn had no plans on mentioning Basil.

After Tsuna ran out of the house earlier that day, Reborn had slowly followed his footsteps, going as far as to give him a head start. Tsuna had probably _thought_ that he could have outrun Reborn—and he almost did, much to Reborn’s pleasant surprise—but Reborn wasn’t the World’s Greatest Hitman for nothing. It was no effort at all to quickly and silently trail behind his pupil, who was too blind from his emotions to even pay attention to where he was going. He had bumped into people several times; Basil was not the first. But almost always did he unconsciously mutter an apology before breaking off into a run again. When he was almost halfway to making it to school, it was then that he bumped into Basil. Reborn felt an urge to jump in and see if Tsuna was okay (and maybe scold him a bit)—he _was_ fragile after all, that no-good student of his—but Tsuna moved before he took a step forward, checking his bags to make sure that nothing fell out and then apologizing to Basil.

Judging by Tsuna’s initial expression, he most likely thought it was another busybody that he had bumped into, just like the other ten times (yes, Reborn counted, mainly because he thought it was so amusing how someone could be that absentminded). But when he looked up and saw who it was, instant recognition filled his eyes. Recognition…and he dare say maybe even a little forlorn affection. That was strange in it of itself, because Reborn was almost certain that Tsuna had never met Basil before in his life, much less be familiar enough with him to hold _affection_ in his eyes. Well, the reports claimed that Tsuna was in no way affiliated with the mafia, but that same report also said that Tsuna was an unintelligent, cowardly, unfit person with an ongoing GPA of 27, and besides his GPA, look how wrong _that_ turned out to be.

Tsuna covered it up, trying his darnedest to make it look as if he had gotten the wrong person, as if it was a mistake and nothing more. But Basil wasn’t having it, as sweet as that kid was—and he was kind, make no mistake—and he, in a very roundabout way, kindly confronted Tsuna that he knew what he was doing. He even told Tsuna that he knew him too, perhaps to start a dialogue to get information out of him. Unfortunately, Basil was anything but aggressive; if Tsuna didn’t want to talk, so as long as he wasn’t a threat to Vongola—which, in Basil’s mind, would most likely be impossible, since his father was part of the cornerstone of Vongola—he wouldn’t persist.

Reborn, on the other hand, would. He’s had enough of Tsuna’s cloak-and-dagger behavior. He had accepted it before, when he found out that Tsuna knew Mukuro—which, he shouldn’t have known him, because he was allegedly not affiliated with the mafia, _allegedly_ —and chalked it up to his Hyper Intuition. But when he thought about it more in retrospect, it was strange no matter how he looked at it. Even before he fought Mukuro, he said—as if he knew him before—that he wasn’t the type of person to surrender. What was it exactly that he had said again? Oh yes. “I know _better than anyone else_ that you won’t back down even if I begged on my hands and knees.”

Interesting.

Still, despite these oddities in Tsuna’s behavior, he’s turned a deliberate blind eye to it as to give Tsuna a chance to explain himself. He figured that Tsuna most likely wouldn’t trust him after the first week or so. But it has been two months—now going on three—that he’s stayed with Tsuna, day in, day out. He ate with him, slept in the same room as him, went to school with him, helped him with his homework, and whenever Tsuna hung out with Gokudera and Yamamoto, he was there too. He would have figured that by now, Tsuna’s trust in him was solid enough that if there was anything that was bothering him, he would have let him know. But he hasn’t. He wouldn’t have even known the boy was sick to the point of death if he hadn’t been injured in the first place. So obviously, despite their close contact, Tsuna didn’t trust him as far as he could spit.

That was fine, though. He knew and understood that trust was so hard to gain, and so easy to lose. And especially considering their circumstances—after all, he _was_ a stranger who just popped up, unannounced, into his house—it was understandable. So really, despite everything, Reborn really wasn’t going to say anything, originally, that was.

But when he had happened to speak with Basil by chance that afternoon, his decision changed.

_“Hey, Basil. How’s it been going?”_

_Basil had stopped mid-step at the entrance of the park, turning around.  His eyes lightened with happiness when he saw who called out to him. “Ah, Reborn-san. It is good to see you again. What brings you here? Were you not supposed to be in a meeting with the Chiavarone Family today?”_

_Reborn had jumped to the nearest bench, beckoning Basil to join him with a brief twitch of his finger, to which Basil briskly walked over and almost hesitantly sat next to him. As he did, Reborn handed him a bottle of water, which he graciously accepted._

_“I was supposed to, but Dino’s still busy with his arrangements. The Nuevo Family has been having some trouble of lately, so he flew down to New York to help them out. He finished a few hours ago, so it won’t be a while until he comes back. How are you doing, being a Pnuër, that is?”_

_Basil quickly looked around, making sure no one overheard him. Reborn thought that amusing, mainly because Basil thought that he would speak freely when someone could overhear him. He was way more circumspect than Basil could ever be, but he didn’t need to tell him that. “It has been…difficult. I do not think that Master has dealt with someone like me before. He trains me as if I’m a…a regular person, and I am not. I have expressed my concerns, but occasionally, I am afraid it falls on deaf ears.”_

_“You should know more than anyone else that Iemitsu is rather stubborn. Have you talked to Lal yet? If there’s anyone that can help, it’s her.”_

_The child lowered his aquamarine eyes to the floor, as if even contemplating it would get him into trouble. “Do you really think so? She does not seem—”_

_“She may not be the most accommodating person in the world,” Reborn interrupted, shifting slightly, “but she knows better than anyone else how it feels. How_ you _feel. And look how she turned out. She may not have your abilities, but she can help you.”_

_“…I promise I will try to ask her.”_

_“Good.”_

_Basil finished the rest of his water, crumpled it, and chucked it into the trash can that was a few ways over. “While we are on the subject, I ran into Master Sawada today. You’ve started training him already?”_

_“No, I haven’t. Although he did run into Rokudo Mukuro. Why do you ask?”_

_Basil stopped, thinking about something before carrying in. “Well. I bumped into him today, quite literally, I’m afraid. When we did, some of his flame leaked onto my skin. I may not know much about Master Sawada, but I have heard stories about him from the Master. How he had a child whose abilities were sealed when he was yea high, and how, ever since, his flames were sealed and not to be re-opened until the appropriate time. But Master Sawada’s flames were everywhere. I thought you knew, Reborn-san,” Basil added when he saw Reborn’s eyes widen a little._

_“I knew he was talented. I haven’t had time to train him.”_

_“Despite being with him for so long?”_

_“The kid’s been running away from the idea of even being involved in the mafia. And it’s not like I can force him.”_

_“Because of his illness?”_

_“…so you saw.”_

_“I did.”_

_His undivided attention on Basil, he inquired, “Did you see anything else?”_

_Basil opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it again. He cocked his head to the side, rethinking his previous thought. “There is only so much I can tell you, Reborn-san. To be honest, I am not sure where to start. Master Sawada…there is so much about him that you do not know, and that he wishes that you don’t know. So I cannot be the one to tell you, even more so because most of those things are beyond my reach and comprehension. But…when I collided into him, I saw myself in his soul.”_

_“What do you mean?”_

_“It was not a premonition, or a feeling, like the Hyper Intuition that many of us share. It was memories. Memories of us fighting side-by-side. Which, I believe to be strange, since I have never fought alongside Master Sawada before, and, to my knowledge, even met him before, prior to today. Unfortunately, although I can see many things within a person’s flames—even going as far as to take on their experiences if accidently pushed too far—I cannot see everything. Perhaps, because of his heightened flames and my abilities, I accidently melded our pasts or…maybe our futures. I am not so sure, and there is no way for me to verify. And…his feelings for me…I do not know if I deserve them, when I cannot even remember the reason as to why he cares for me so much in the first place.”_

_Basil shuffled towards Reborn, right next to Reborn’s face, and bent down. He reached for Reborn, but just inches away, glanced at Reborn’s face to see if he would reject him. When he did not, he continued, lightly touching the edge of Reborn’s yellow pacifier. It glowed, and almost immediately, he saw the same picture that Basil had seen reflected right back at him._

_“…I see.”_

_“Please don’t tell him I told you, Reborn-san,” Basil quickly said, pulling away his hand once he was done. “I don’t want him to become alarmed. It does make me wonder, though. He has a lot of connections with different families, or so I saw from his flames. It is very possible that I have fought with him in the past against a rival family, and he was under a guise. But if that were the case, that means that he could potentially be involved with another family that isn’t a part of Vongola. Shall I notify Master and the Ninth about this?”_

_Reborn didn’t even wait for a second to pass before he answered, “No. That’s not needed. If it’s nothing more than a misunderstanding, then you telling them what you saw will only make Tsuna distrust us more, and might even alarm him. You’re trying to prevent that, aren’t you?”_

_“Well, yes, but…”_

_“He won’t be a threat. If he is, then I’ll restrain him myself,” he promised. “Besides, you don’t_ really _think he’s a threat. If you did, you would have told them already, instead of me. You’re telling me this to ask me if I know anything, aren’t you?”_

_Not at all surprised, but very much embarrassed, Basil’s eyes lowered back onto the floor, and his cheeks reddened slightly. “Well, I…yes. You are amazing as always, Reborn-san. I had thought that after observing Master Sawada for so long, you may have known something about it. But you don’t know anything either, do you?”_

_“…no. No, I don’t.”_

Tsuna didn’t seem like a hypocrite. But the fact remained that there was a good possibility that he knew a lot more families than Reborn thought he did, for someone allegedly not affiliated with the mafia, for someone that was _so_ against it from the moment they met.

Tsuna didn’t seem like a liar. But the fact remained that he lied to Reborn not once, not twice, but three times, all without batting an eyelash. He lied about Mukuro, he lied about his flames—he had to have known that he had flames; there was no way, with how intelligent Tsuna was, that he didn’t realize that his flames were leaking all over the place—and he lied—hell, he lied about _everything_. His intelligence, his strength, his illness. Reborn was beginning to wonder if Tsuna’s very existence was a façade, that perhaps he was already involved with some family that was against Vongola, which was why he was so against becoming its leader.

Why was he so afraid to give up Mukuro to the Vindice, despite everything that Mukuro had done to him? Why did he fight them tooth and nail, risking his life in the process?

Why did he even spare him in the first place, when Mukuro used Tsuna’s moment of weakness to kill him?

And come to think about it, how did Tsuna become ill in the first place?

Originally, Reborn wasn’t going to ask. Originally, Reborn was going to leave it alone until Tsuna trusted him more. He wanted to learn more about his pupil slowly, watch him grow. Maybe it was the patronal side of him, maybe it was because Tsuna didn’t have much aid in growing up and he wanted to be the one to see it. But their relationship was going to go absolutely nowhere if Tsuna didn’t start soon. To make matters worse, because of Tsuna’s position as the next-of-kin to inherit the Vongola name, people were going to come after him, and if Tsuna wanted to survive _at all_ , he’ll have to trust him.

Reborn won’t ask about his involvement with other families. He won’t ask how he got sick. He won’t ask how he knew Mukuro—how he _actually_ knew Mukuro. But he will ask about Basil. He knew Tsuna, though, even though he felt as if he knew nothing about him. Most likely, Tsuna was going to lie his way through the conversation. And if he was caught with one lie, then he would give another. And another. And another.

And each time he did, Reborn would tear it down, leaving Tsuna to feed another lie to him, until he ran out of ideas. And when he did, Reborn was going to confront him properly, just like he should have when he first noticed that something wasn’t too right with him.

 “So. How do you know Basil?”

* * *

As the words came out of Reborn’s mouth, he saw that Tsuna froze entirely. He couldn’t see his facial expression, since he was leaning on his back, but he felt Tsuna’s body stiffen. And, unless he was imagining things, Tsuna’s body was starting to become a little cold and clammy as well.

Was he so desperate to hide his identity that even uttering something from his other life scared him? Perhaps there was more to it than Reborn thought. Perhaps the leader of whatever family he was associated with forced Tsuna to work undercover. And if he was discovered…well. He knew all about that, being a hitman himself.

But at the same time, Reborn had to start somewhere. He finally got a lead as to who the hell his pupil actually was, with the picture Basil showed him. Tsuna and Basil were standing a few ways from each other, but still close enough that he could tell they were fighting together, with both of them in Hyper Dying Will mode. The gloves that Leon gave him a few days ago were on his hands, with the purest flames that Reborn ever saw, including Aria’s, Yuni’s, and even Luce’s flames. And their flames were the purest of them all, as they were the ones to inherit the brunt of the curse of the Arcobalerno. That, in it of itself, was alarming.

Although Basil said that he and Tsuna might have shared their past or their future, Reborn didn’t believe it for a second. Basil didn’t know this, but all a Pnuër could do was expose the memories—and possibly relive them, if he was drenched in enough of their flames—of the person whose flames touched his body. The flames of a person, active or not, was an external trademark. As such, their flames were a physical manifestation of their soul. So there was no way that Basil could tamper with Tsuna’s memories, even if by accident. Especially if Tsuna was as strong as Basil claimed him to be. If anything, the reason why Basil was able to see that small memory of Tsuna’s in the first place was _because_ of how strong he was. And seeing the future? That wasn’t something Basil could do. After all, he _had_ just awakened his abilities quite recently.

So that left the most logical question: how did Tsuna know Basil in the first place?

Tsuna had shifted away from him while Reborn was thinking, asking almost weakly, “Who are you talking about?”

“Don’t play games with me,” Reborn calmly responded. “I saw you and Basil today. You can’t get away from this one, Tsuna. You knew him even before he introduced himself, even called him by name.”

“That’s…”

“Just tell me. I won’t get mad.”

Tsuna slowly turned over, stared in his teacher’s eyes. “Really?”

“Really. I won’t. I’m more upset that you’d try to hide it from me.”

He opened his mouth, as if he was going to say something, but then bit his lip. When he spoke, he chose his words carefully, something that, Reborn knew, meant that he was probably lying through his teeth without getting caught.

“I…met Basil a few years ago. He probably doesn’t remember, but he saved my life.”

Curiosity piqued, Reborn asked, “When was this?”

“…it was three years ago. We met at the Namimori Shopping Center. He had some sort of box in his hand, and this guy was chasing him. I don’t remember what he looked like because I was trying to run away,” he explained. “But then I accidently tripped, and that guy who was after him came after _me_ instead, for some reason. And then Basil protected me, even though he had to protect whatever box that was. He gave me time to run away. The only reason why I know his name is because that guy was screaming it, or else I would have never known.”

That made sense. At least, the story did. “If that was the case, why didn’t you tell him when you saw him?”

“I...I figured that I would never meet him again. I mean, things like that don’t happen every day, you know? But why are you asking? How do you know Basil?”

“I thought I was the one asking the questions.”

“Yeah, but you can’t just ask something like that for no reason!”

“It’s not like it was a sensitive topic. If anything, you should be more than happy to remind him. I didn’t take you for such a selfish person, Tsuna.”

Indignant, Tsuna immediately shot out of the bed, glaring at Reborn. “I wasn’t trying to be selfish! There’s no need to bring up something that he won’t remember anyhow. And besides, even if he did remember, it won’t make a difference, because there’s no chance of meeting him again. I didn’t know who he even was, besides his name!”

That was a good point. “Alright. I’ll give you that much. So you don’t know Basil at all, besides the fact that he saved you a few years ago?”

“…yeah.”

“If I find out that you’re lying to me…”

“I’m not. Is he such an important person that just seeing him with me once is enough for you to interrogate me like I’m some criminal?”

Reborn wanted to say that he wasn’t interrogating him, but it’s true that he was. Because for him, it wasn’t only the fact that Tsuna met Basil. It was everything else that he noticed about Tsuna to this point, along with the strangely-not-related-yet-completely-truthful memory that Basil accidentally happened to obtain.

“No, that’s not it. But perhaps if you stopped hiding everything, I wouldn’t question you so much.”

“When have I ever—”

“Do you _really_ want to have this conversation?”

That shut him up. His face crumpled, and like before, Reborn felt oddly satisfied about his win, but in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t change a thing. Tsuna’s explanation may have been sound, but to Reborn, he felt like something was off. If Tsuna was really saved by Basil, then what was it that Basil showed him? How could Tsuna use his flames? And…if it were really in the past, then how did Tsuna have Leon’s gloves on?

He was missing something. He just didn’t know what it was.

“For your reference, Basil is a member of CEDEF, an organization of Vongola’s. So you’ll see him again.”

“Oh. I see.”

And just like that, Tsuna lied back down and turned over. When Reborn laid down next to him, Tsuna started to grumble.

“Aren’t you going to go back into your own bed?”

“I don’t have permission to sleep next to you?”

“You usually don’t want to,” Tsuna huffed. “And you’re taking up space. It’s uncomfortable and hot.”

“Stop complaining. I’m already here, and I’m not in the mood to move,” Reborn retorted. “Just go to sleep; it’ll be a long day tomorrow.”

Tsuna turned back towards him, his nose touching the tips of Reborn’s hair. “What’s going on tomorrow?”

“We’re going to see an old friend.”

Interested, Tsuna leaned in closer. “What friend?”

“You’ll see. Now go to sleep.”

Huffing, Tsuna complied, turning around, with his back towards Reborn. When he was satisfied that Tsuna had finally fell asleep, he closed his eyes and started to fall unconscious himself. But a soft rustle in the window jarred him awake, and he opened his eyes slightly, listening for any more sounds that could point to robbery, He had never seen it since he’s lived here, but he had heard that when Tsuna was younger, there were a lot of burglar attempts. He didn’t think that was the case this time; it could have just been the wind, but he didn’t want to take chances.

The window made another thump, before he slowly heard it creak open. Fully on alert, Reborn already had Leon in his hand, ready to strike. Soft, airy footsteps made their way towards Tsuna’s desk, and in one fluid motion, Reborn jumped out of bed and leaped towards his hammock that was just inches from Tsuna’s door and posed his gun at the stranger. But what he saw wasn’t a burglar. He wasn’t sure _what_ he saw, actually.

He didn’t believe in any religion, not one bit.  He had grown up in a world where religion was mocked and criticized, and that humanism was the best way of survival. But there in front of him was something that looked analogous to any picture of an angel he’s seen. It was a man with white garments, white hair, slanted lavender eyes, and large, beautiful wings. Reborn couldn’t take his eyes away, because in all of the years he’s lived, he’s never seen something quite so…ethereal.

But then the person spoke, and it shattered all doubts in Reborn’s mind that he was any such being.

“It looks like I woke up the wrong person, huh.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I’m thinking of doing a summary chapter next chapter so you understand everything that’s going on, but I’m not sure yet. If I decide to, I’ll be sure to label it “Non-chapter Update” so you know. In any case, you’ll be getting your questions answered in these next few chapters, but if you have any additional questions, feel free to let me know.
> 
> Since this is only part one of three, the other chapters will increase in length, since I’ll be putting a lot of events together. So expect the next chapter to be probably twice as long (and possibly by next week or the week after). 
> 
> P.S. I know I made some grammar errors, like when I used “person” and “they” together. Any other mistakes you catch, please excuse them >.<
> 
> Also. Five points to anyone who knows what flashback Tsuna is talking about. ^^  
> Edit: The Nuevo Family IS canon, believe it or not.


End file.
